The Xander Halloween short story Collection
by Simone of the Zordiak
Summary: A collection of short stories [one shots and Drabble Fics] to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'
1. A Little Halloween Music

A little Helloween Music  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people who aren't very nice to them.  
  
A short answer to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween' I was listening to my CD's and it spawned this short story. I hope you all can recognize the costume he choose.  
  
---  
  
He looked around listlessy. Buffy had already found her costume and left, but he was still here, still searching. At first he'd thought that he could go as a soldier, but then he'd watched several kids bawling around with their toyguns and suddenly he'd felt way to old for that.  
  
What else was there? He flicked through the costumes. Vampire,  
devil, demon, vampirehunter... it was all to close for him to wear comfortably. He didn't want to dress up as a villain, but neither did he want to be a hero. Heros were walking targets in Sunnydale.  
No, he wanted to be something different, someone who was just himself. He stopped at one costume and frowned until he remembered the story behind it. Not a hero, but not a real villain either. Xander smiled. It was perfect.  
  
Suddenly he was somewhere else. He whirled around, ready to fight,  
but while there was chaos around him, nobody seemed to want to kill him here. He didn't know if he should be happy about it.  
Sure, he'd escaped the lynchmob that was about to kill him, but he also had lost his one true love, had given her away freely so she could live a better, a happy life with all the things he couldn't give her.  
  
He learned quickly why he was here, that he wasn't even real in this world, only a story, only a costume a boy had choosen. But he was real. He had a history and feelings and a soul. A damaged soul, but there was still hope for him yet. And with the sparsly information he had on this world, his hope grew.  
  
A spell had brought him here, magic did exist, was working in this realm. He knew a lot of magic, had studied it for all his life,  
maybe it could help him stay here, when the spell was ended. He had no desire to go back to his own reality, where the mob would tear him appart in a few minutes. No, he wanted to stay here.  
  
He started thinking furiously. There had to be a way.  
  
---  
  
When the bust of Janus was unfriendly introduced to the floor of the costumeshop, everyone reverted back to his or her normal self.  
  
Everyone except Xander. His costume, in a desperate attempt of trying to not being send back to his reality, had merged with him.  
  
It was very confusing. He'd both the memories of his life on the hellmouth and the memories of over fifty years of life in the late 19th century. He remembered his childhoods, one as a normal child and one as an outcast, he remembered everything, the magic, the music, the murders and the morphium. And her... God, he still could see every small detail of her face... It hurt to remember her.  
  
His body had changed, too. Xander had been tall before, but now he almost reached 7 feet. The brown of his hair had become pitchblack and his formerly chocolate-brown eyes were now the color of amber and reflected the light, like cats eyes.  
  
When he finally went home after all the chaos, he removed the costume in front of the mirror and looked... and smiled.  
When the two had merged, a lot of the damage had been repaired.  
His face looked human now, save for several faint scars, that he could live with. He was human now, with a human face.  
  
Xander started to humm.  
  
Maybe he should compose something. Something happier and more carefree than his last works.  
  
He was free, finally free of his burden.  
  
Xander knew that those where not really his memories, but he couldn't blame his other for his wish of survival, couldn't blame him for the merging of the two. When the music started to fill his head, he knew he'd made the right decision.  
  
He only hoped that the other scoobies would take his merging with Erik similarly well. There was no way to undo it and even if there were, he wouldn't let them do it... if only to keep the music in his mind.  
  
End 


	2. Willow's Choice

Willow's Choice 

Simone of the Zordiak

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A second, short answer to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween' Or better, what if Willow used her Resolve face to guilt him into another costume.

---

Willow was not happy. Nope, no happy Willows around, no happiness in Willow-land. The reason? Xanders costume. It was boring and dull and a typical men type of costume and Willow was absolutely against it. With her keen eye she started to scan the racks until... there it was, the perfect costume for him!

Xander balked. Willow weddled. He protested. She used the full-powered resolve face. He tried to feebly argue against her choice. She used he most powerful weapon against him: the Willow pout. A pouting Willow is a dangerous Willow and Xander folded, sighed and accepted his fate.

---

Later the evening, when she had just found out that she wasn't so coporeal anymore, she looked around and saw Buffy the noble lady screaming in fear and cowering from the demons. And Xander? She looked for him and blanced as she saw him smirking at her, before he turned into a barn owl and flew away.

She turned around and ran for it. Ran to Giles as fast as she could. Buffy's change was bad, really bad and the demons and the other stuff was worse, but the worst was the carnage she could imagine Xander creating, in his guise as the Goblin King.

End

I proudly present Xander as Jareth the Goblin King, from the movie "Labyrinth.


	3. Magic of Halloween

Magic of Helloween  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A third, short answer to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'. Ahhh, the bunnys, the bunnys are everywhere!!! And they force me to write, not letting me sit down even for a minute.  
  
---  
  
After Mr Rayne ("call me Ethan") had told him that he didn't stock any toyguns ("I don't like guns. They are such dumb weapons",  
Xander was a bit lost. He couldn't really afford a good costume and at least the army fatigue would have been cheap to get.  
But a soldier without a gun? Not possible!  
  
So there he was, looking through the racks of costumes, but not really finding something suitible, until... there it was, simple,  
sleek and elegant, but not without a certain air of menance.  
  
Xander grinned. He'd read the books (all Willows fault, she'd gotten him hooked) and while he wasn't the most lovable character,  
he was one Xander could really understand in some ways. An angry,  
imperfect man. This was perfect.  
  
---  
  
Spike grinned at the cowering slayer. This was fun, this was wild,  
he liked it! He grabbed her hair pulling her towards him when.  
"Avada Kedavra!" A flash of green light was the last thing he ever saw.  
  
She looked up. There he stood, her saviour. Tall and haggart, dressed into a solid black robe, a hooked nose and lank black hair,  
his mouth curled in disdain and a slender wooden stick in his hand.  
  
Buffy stood up and with a cry threw herself into his arms and started sobbing.  
  
"Miss Summers, would you kindly remove your arms off my robe and stop this disgusting snivelling! If we were at school I would take points for this absurd display!"  
  
She sobbed. "But Mister..."  
  
"I don't care what is happening here, but you will treat me with the respect I deserve, Miss Summers! The correct manner of address is Professor, or sir, understood?"  
  
She nodded meekly.  
  
He snorted, muttered something about hopeless Hufflepuffs under his breath and then dragged her out of the warehouse, leaving behind him several pertified minidemons and a small pile of dust that had once been William the Bloody.  
  
End 


	4. Angel of Halloween

Angel of Helloween  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A fourth drabble in my menagerie of answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
---  
  
He hated Snyder, he really really hated him. Not only did he forced him to troup around with a brunch of small kids, but he also had decided that they had to wear his type of "decent" costumes. Snyder had made them draw lots with costume choices written on them.  
  
Buffy had drawn the princess, lucky her, she'd wanted to go as a noble lady anyway, so there was no big difference for her. Willow was silently grumbleing over the ghost, but at least she could wear something nice under her sheet. But he... ? Again he glared at his lot, hoping for it to change through pure force of will.  
But it still read the same.  
  
He sighed and hoped that Ethan's had something halfway decent for him.  
  
---  
  
Ethan listened to his woes and then started to smile.  
"Don't worry young man, I think I have the perfect costume for you."  
  
---  
  
"Harris!"  
  
"Mr Snyder?"  
  
"Harris, what is that?!"  
  
"My costume, Mr Snyder."  
  
"I thought I'd given your lot decent costume choices! I don't think that THIS is a decent costume, Harris!"  
  
Xander bit the inside of his lip to stop himself from grinning.  
Instead he pulled a book out of his backpack, opened it on a marked page, then handed it to the troll as well has the lot he'd drawn.  
  
"As you can see, Mr Snyder, this costume followes the directions given in the lot exactly, I checked."  
  
Snyder glared at him, but unfortunately for him, Xander was absolutely right.  
  
"Just get out of my sight, Harris!"  
  
"Yes, Mr Snyder."  
  
He walked away, softly humming a happy tune under his breath.  
  
---  
  
She heard a ripping sound and turned around. Willow gasped.  
Where Xander had stood a moment before, there was now a seething mass of darkness.  
And then, something was forming in that mass, was emerging from the darkness, like it just had been born from it.  
  
Tall. Dark. Final.  
  
The figure was more real than reality and it hurt to look at it.  
  
And then it started to move.  
  
Willow shuddered as she heard the sound the air was making, as thousand times thousand times thousand razorsharp feathers sliced through it.  
  
Two mighty wings unfolded to their fullest, before the figure lifted off, flying away to collect the souls of those that lost their life in the chaos around her.  
  
Willow shuddered.  
  
The Angel of Death was partolling the streets and tonight his name was Xander.  
  
End  
  
Azrael, the angel of Death. Outlook influenced by Wolfgang Hohlbein's book 'Azrael' 


	5. Matching Costumes

Matching Costumes  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A fifth drabble in my menagerie of answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
---  
  
He knew, he should have said no, had known it right from the moment she'd vetoed his costume choice. But how could he?  
She was his Dawnmeister, his little sister in spirit. And right now, she was his bane.  
  
He should have remembered, that she was hooked on those damn books,  
should have been able to foresee, that she would try to dress up as many of her friends and family as characters of those books.  
  
Buffy was a noble woman and Dawn had decided, that she could be one of the many noble women, that were discribed in the books. Much to he disappointment Willow had managed to wiggle out of her manipulations. Dawn had wanted her to be Ce'Nedra, the Dryadprincess.  
But Willow had put her foot down. She was choosing her own costume and that was her last word. Dawn herself was going to be Xera, a dryad and cousin of Ce'Nedra.  
  
Yes, and now they were here, looking for a fitting costume for him.  
After Dawn had told him, that no, soldier wasn't the costume for him, she had decided to take his costume into her 'capable' hands.  
  
Xander was very relived, when she was unable to find something with a bearskin, so Barak of Alorn was out of the picture. He could picture it, himself in chainmail and with a bearskincape... he shuddered.  
  
Then Dawn saw that broadsword with the big blue costumejewel in the hilt and Xander knew he was doomed... Dawn had decided.  
  
---  
  
His sword flashed around and the song of Aldur's Eye was filling his head with a sound of triumph. He had absolutely no idea how he had gotten here or what was going on or even a name for the things that were attacking him, but one thing he knew absolutely:  
he was in trouble. In very big trouble.  
  
If his wife, his very pregnant and cranky wife, found out that he'd vanished and gotten himself into trouble, again, he was going to spend the next decade in his wolfform and as far away from her as possible.  
  
On the other side he worried about his friends, he hadn't seen any of them since he had appeared here.  
  
Ahead of him, a woman screamed and he bannished the thoughts of his wife and his friends, redrew his sword and went to help her.  
  
---  
  
"Giles, we have a problem," Xander announced as he stepped into the libary the next day.  
  
"Oh? What is ist, Xander?"  
  
Xander pulled a simple cotton bag out of his backpack, opened the strings and reached into it.  
  
"This," he said, as he pulled out the object from the bag.  
  
This, was a stone, an azure stone the size of a childs head, that burned in his hand with a blue flame. And unknown to Giles, the song of the Cthrag Yaska, the Eye of Aldur, was filling Xanders head again.  
  
End  
  
Belgarion: Main Character in the Belgariad Saga by David Eddings.  
He is the sorcerorking of Riva an island heavyly protected by storms and mountains. His families duty is it, to guard and care for the Eye of Aldur, the most powerfull magic artefact on the planet. After the Eye was misused to split the continent into two halves, the Eye kill anyone who touches it, except the Family of the Rivan King. The Eye communicates by change of color, song and by projecting images into his keepers head. 


	6. Consequences of wounded pride

Consequences of wounded Pride  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A sixth drabble in my growing menagerie of answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
---  
  
If she hadn't dissed his choice of clothing, hadn't speculated loudly about his costume for the evening and that in front of her entire pack of brainless fashion slaves, who know what would have happened. But dissing him she did and now he was here, in Ethan's costume shop, looking for 'it', the perfect costume. He was going to show her!  
  
Xander wandered down the isles, looking over the costumes hanging on their racks. Ninja, thief, mutant, devil, vampire... absolutely not! The authentic looking dress of a Chinese nobleman fascinated him as well as the gear of a native American shaman, but then he saw 'it'. The costume that would shut up Cordelia for good.  
  
Trancelike he stopped in front of it, pressing his hands against the glassbox it was locked into. It was perfect!  
  
"Ah, a good choice, young man. I have to congratulate you on your excellent taste."  
  
Xander flinched, he hadn't noticed the shopowner walking up on him.  
  
"This is a replica of the crowning garments of the first Egyptian pharaoh, Atemu. It is said that he sacrificed himself in order to save the world from great evil."  
  
He listened raptly to Ethan's words, his mind made up. This was the costume he would wear! Cordy was going to become green with enyv!  
  
---  
  
Xander looked into the mirror, rechecking his outfit for the last,  
the final time, before he went to get Buffy and Willow. Putting on the fake tanning make up had been a bitch and he really didn't want to remember how long it had taken to do apply the kohl around his eyes the right way. But the result was breathteaking.  
  
Darktanned, mysterious and proud, wrapped in fine linen, his upper body almost entirely bare, save for the wide collar made out of costumepearls and stones. His hair was hidden under the clothpiece of the headset, the two fins of the crown framing his face perfectly and the reversed eye of Ra in the middle of his forhead, centerpiece of the crown, was adding to his untouchable aura. The last matching piece of his costume had been a replica of the large upside down pyramid, also with the reversed eye of Ra on it, that the pharaoh was said to have worn his entire life.  
  
He grinned, revealing teeth that looked so much whiter against the darker skin. Now he was ready to go and meet Buffy.  
  
---  
  
The next day Xander was sprawled on his bed, his hand automatically toying with the pyramid he was still wearing around his neck. His eyes were locked on the celling, but he wasn't really seeing anything.  
His mind was far away, in a corridor with three doors. Two, the one with the reverted eye of Ra on it and the one that looked suspiciously like one to Xander's room, were open, the last, made out of glass and steel was tightly shut, but through the glass you could see wide open steppe behind the door.  
  
Voices were coming out of one of the rooms.  
  
"You are not going to tell the others, are you?"  
  
"Are you nuts? The would try to exorcise you out of me before I was finished telling them that I have a voice in my head."  
  
Xander and another were sitting in Xander's soulroom, talking.  
The other was a bit smaller than Xander and more slender. His eyes were rubyred and had an exotic tilt to them. But the most unusual about him was his hair, sticking up in odd angles. Most of it was black, but the tips were deep red and several bangs at his forehead where a golden yellow.  
And he looked quite young, he couldn't be older than 17 at the most.  
  
"Hey!" He said, protesting, but he smiled. His hands were busy with a rubik's cube he'd found in the mess of Xander's room.  
  
"Seriously, why did you come back? I know you didn't have to.  
And now that you decided to stick around with me, you will end up in any weired situation you can imagine and a lot more. Why give up the afterlife for that?"  
  
The boy shrugged. "I never travelled to the Western Lands. I wasn't allowed to. The sacrifice I made saved my people, but at the same time damned me to eternal awareness without a body.  
With you I can change that. Through you and with you I will be able to live again. So much has changed. And yet there is still darkness and evil in the world. There are so many enemies to defeat, so many battles to plan and...," he grinned, twisted the cube one last time and held up the finished rubic's cube in triumph, "... still so many games to be played."  
  
END  
  
Those that read the original japanese Manga of Yu-Gi-Oh already know that the name of Yuugi's dark side is Atemu. 


	7. Fate's Game

Fate's Game  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A seventh drabble in my ever growing menagerie of answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
---  
  
Most of the time people curse fate, there is nothing there, but bad choices made by themselves. Something they had choosen to do, something that always had consequences.  
  
But, it was fate, that influenced Ethan Ranye to buy a battered old katana from a pawn shop, fate, that made him combine the sword with a silverwhite wig and a combination of red hakama and yukata.  
  
And it was fate that he had no toyguns left when Xander Harris entered the shop to pick his costume.  
  
The sword seemed to quiver and whine when he got close to it.  
And when he touched it, it felt so right, so at home in his hand,  
that he simply knew he had to take this costume.  
  
Truly, it was fate, that returned Tetsusaiga to the reincarnated form of his owner this night, when the costumes became reality.  
  
---  
  
Xander looked in the mirror again, but there where no changes.  
Not that he had expected it. His ears where still located high on top of his head, his hair still long and silverish white,  
his body still that of the inu-yukai.  
He didn't know why he was the only one still locked in the form of his costume, but he speculated that it had something to do with the sword at his side. Tetsusaiga, only he would buy a costume of InuYasha with the real Tetsusaiga. Obviously the sword had influenced Ethan's spell.  
  
Giles was researching the matter, but it looked like he had to get used to his new outlook.  
  
Xander sighed. He was only lucky that the rosary that had been part of the costume had ripped and he had left it, or he would have been bound to the same command as the dogdemon in the anime.  
He shuddered.  
  
Right now he had enough problems. But at least the situation couldn't get any worse, he'd already hit rock bottom.  
  
Someone was knocking at the door and he openend it, expecting it to be Willow. But it wasn't.  
  
In front of him stood a slender, quite youthfull looking man with long white hair and elfin ears. He had two slashmarkings on his checks and a halfmoon on his forehead and his smell was very familar.  
  
"Aren't you going to invite me in, InuYasha?"  
  
"Sesshomaru."  
  
Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.  
  
And in a place, beyond time and space, Fate was laughing.  
  
End 


	8. Unfinished

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A eighth drabble in my ever growning menagerie of answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I thought I had written them alll out of my brain,  
but yesterday while zapping, I stumbled over this movie and thought that this would be one of the most impossible costumes to write about and now the stupid bunny wont leave me alone.  
  
I don't know how many of you will recognize the costume, I just saw that movie, wracked my brain and couldn't remember to having seen/read something similar ever.  
  
Unfinished  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He watched the children, teens, adults that entered his shop.  
Each and every costume they bought would help create chaos as he wanted it to be, but he was still waiting for 'THE' one. The one person, who was to wear his masterpiece.  
The bell over his door rang and he looked up, then shook his head. Again, there was not the right person. Ethan wasn't sure what he was looking for, he only knew it had to do something with the eyes of that person. They had to show a certain type of openess, something just like...  
  
"Ah, my boy. I have waited the entire day for you to come here!"  
  
"Me, but I... "  
  
"You see, I have this one costume I really care about, and I want it displayed on the streets tonight. But none of my other customers have the right face to pull it of. So I would like to ask you to wear it tonight."  
  
"But I don't have the money to afford it."  
  
"Do you think I run this shop for money? No, you can't get rich selling costumes. I do if for the satisfaction of seeing people turned into what they want to be."  
  
The boy was silent, thinking.  
  
"Do you want to see it? It might be easier to decide if you know what kind of costume I am talking about."  
  
A nod was his only answer and so Ethan guided the youth to the back of his shop.  
  
"Here it is."  
  
"Holy... I have seen the movie, but never thought someone could make a costume like this."  
  
"It took a lot of time and patience. Do you understand why I want this to be seen?"  
  
"Of course. Is it fully...?"  
  
"Everything works like in the movie. Well, my boy?"  
  
The youth nodded.  
  
"Yes, I will wear it."  
  
---  
  
"Where is Xander?  
  
"I don't know. Remember that costume store owner lead him into the back of the store. I think he said something about Xander having the right face for a special costume of his or so."  
  
"He did? Well I hope he's in time or great costume or not Snyder will be more unpleasant then normally."  
  
"Hi."  
  
"What?! Huh? Xander! Is that you?"  
  
"Yes. Well what do you think?"  
  
"Wow. That is really something."  
  
"Thanks, Buffy. And you Wills?"  
  
"He was right, you do have the face for it."  
  
---  
  
"You utter BASTARD! What did you do to Xander?"  
  
"Ouch, that hurt, you know. Who is Xander?"  
  
"Alexander Harris. This tall, brown hair, brown eyes, came into your shop with a redhead and my Slayer. His costume hasn't turned back. That Xander!"  
  
"Ohh, the boy with the perfect eyes. I gave him my masterpiece.  
You do remember my masterpieces, do you!"  
  
"You, you asshole! How could you do something like that!"  
  
"Why Ripper, I only wanted to preserve the innocence I felt inside of him. I am a chaos mage, remember. A bit of light here, a bit of darkness there, but never outright evil or good.  
The boy could only become what he did because his own core resonated with the magics of my work. And now his core is visible for the world to see. Innocence, but of a flawed, unfinished type. He will never age, never die and never loose that innocence I felt in him, but he will also never be able to touch anyone without wounding that person or even be seen as a regular human being. He is my greatest work so far. I... "  
  
The chaos mage was stopped abruptly when Giles knocked him out.  
  
---  
  
On a bench in an overgrown garden behind an empty mansion, there sat a figure. He had a pale, scarred face and a mop of more than messy hair. His clothes were rather strange, mostly black leather with countless buckels and zippers.  
  
His wide doelike eyes were looking down on the ground and every time he moved his hands there was a scratching, slicing sound.  
  
Silently he stood up and ghosted back to the mansion that would become his home.  
  
END 


	9. Halloween, After Colony Style, Version A

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
The ninth A drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
This is a very very short drabble and there is a similar version,  
Type B, that I wrote at the same time.  
  
This time Xander dresses up as a soldier, just not any common one.  
  
Helloween, After Colony Style, Version A  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Xander looked at the gun he'd gotten and frowned. He'd hoped to get a fake MG or a rifle, but the only guns left where handguns. Not really fitting for a soldier costume. Aimlessly he wandered through the shop, until a gleam of chestnut brown caught his eye. Suddenly everything clicked into place. Xander grinned. It was rather fitting that he would go as a soldier still, just not any ordinary soldier,  
no sir, not footsoldier for the Xan-man.  
  
---  
  
He aimed and fired a single shot at the fleeing 'thing', then turned around, his long braid bouncing around as he moved with quick and fluid movements. His brain was already working feverently to analyze the situation he'd found himself in. In the war, he'd seen a lot of things, but nothing as strange as this.  
  
"Xander!"  
  
He turned around and the first thing Willow noticed was that his formerly brown eyes were now a rather stunning shade of violett.  
  
"I'm sorry, miss, but you must have mistaken me."  
  
"If you are not Xander, then who are you?"  
  
He mock bowed, his braid droping over his shoulder.  
  
"My name is Duo, Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I will never tell a lie."  
  
END 


	10. Halloween, After Colony Style, Version B

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
The ninth B drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
This is a very very short drabble and there is a similar version,  
Type A, that I wrote at the same time.  
  
This time Xander dresses up as a soldier, just not any common one.  
  
Helloween, After Colony Style, Version B  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Xander looked at the gun he'd gotten and frowned. He'd hoped to get a fake MG or a rifle, but the only guns left where handguns. Not really fitting for a soldier costume. Aimlessly he wandered through the shop, until a gleam of platinum blond caught his eye. Suddenly everything clicked into place. Xander grinned. It was rather fitting that he would go as a soldier still, just not any ordinary soldier,  
no sir, not footsoldier for the Xan-man.  
  
---  
  
He aimed and fired a single shot at the fleeing 'thing', then turned around, his long, platinum blonde hair fluttering in a slight breeze.  
Reloading his gun, he moved with quick and fluid movements. His brain was already working feverently to analyze the situation he'd found himself in. In the war, he'd seen a lot of things, but nothing as strange as this. He wished that Trieze was here. Wherever here was.  
  
"Xander!"  
  
He turned around and the first thing Willow noticed was that the eyes behind the silver halfmask were no longer brown, but an icy shade of blue... like chipped ice.  
  
"I'm truly sorry, miss, but you must have mistaken me."  
  
"If you are not Xander, then who are you?"  
  
He gave a curt formal bow, his hair drapping over his shoulders not unlike a cape.  
  
"My name is Zechs Marquise. Lt. of OZ Special Forces. What can you tell me about the situation here?"  
  
END 


	11. Like a Shephred

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A tenth drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
I asked myself, which costume would be the most impossible, the most impacting on the Scooby group. And came up with this.  
  
Warning: Religious themes.  
  
Like a Shephred  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
After Larry had attacked him, Xander was no longer in the mood for Helloween. Sure, he went to the shop with Buffy and the Willster,  
but he had no desire to buy a costume. At least not an aggressive one. Larry had been drafted by Snyder as well and if he appeared in an aggressive costume, the Quaterback would see it as an invite to bash some more of his ribs.  
  
Xander winched. Two ribs were still smarting and would continue so for the next few days.  
  
He looked through the cheaper costumes until his eyes stopped on one rather simple costume. It was nothing much, but if he tweaked it a bit here and there, added some make-up, wig and beard, he would have the most original costume of all. And anyway, in a town like Sunnydale, this costume could be the best protection ever.  
  
---  
  
Willow and Buffy had been quite disturbed by the choice of his costume, but after the first rag had decided to accept it and move on. As Xander had suspected, Larry had left him completly alone.  
He smiled. Maybe this was not so bad at all.  
  
---  
  
When Willow found Xander after Ethan's spell had affected anyone who was wearing one of his costumes, she found him sitting on a bench, with a large circle of some of the strangest listeners she'd ever seen. There where countless types of children turned demons, but also one or two real demons and a few regular humans.  
  
Xander turned to her and smiled and for the first time since she'd found herself a ghost, Willow felt like everything would be allright. The man, that was currently inhabiting Xander's body,  
gestured with one punctured hand for her to join the circle, before he started telling a simple story about a rich woman, a poor widow and the worth of their sacrifices.  
  
END 


	12. Ruler of the Waves

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
An eleventh drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I have given up killing bunnys with bunny-b-gone and am going to write out short drabbles to all the bunnies that have attacked me. Afterwards I hope I will be able to continue my other fic. I might expand on one or the other drabble, but which one remains to be seen.  
  
Ruler of the Waves  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He was digging through the bin of cheap props for something to go with his costume, when something caught his interest. Sure, it wasn't what he was searching for, but it has possibilities.  
All he needed to make this work was some stuff he'd either at home already of could get her cheaply. And it would make a much better costume than the solider.  
  
---  
  
Sea-shells... Check.  
  
Blue and green hairdye... Check.  
  
Fishnet... Check.  
  
Trident... Check.  
  
Crown, covered with sea-shells and algea... Check.  
  
Yes, he was ready.  
  
---  
  
Ethan had never expected something like this to happen. He'd thought he had covered every possibility, but h had never even dreamed that this was possible.  
  
Humans had lost their rulership of the Oceans.  
  
The God of the Seas was back and boy was he pissed at all the junk people had dumped into the oceans and all the species,  
that had died out.  
  
He outright denied humanity access to the ressources of the Seas, except for a few minorities that used to hunt and work with the seas like their forefathers had done. They respected the seas and thus they were allowed to continue in their ways.  
  
Ethan couldn't help, but laugh.  
  
One spell, one costume, one boy.  
  
Far more chaos, for a much longer space of time he'd imagined.  
  
Janus would be pleased.  
  
END 


	13. Memories of a Serpent

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 12th A drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Xover with Yami no Matsuei After reading the Gensou Kai Arc and what is there from the Kamakura Arc I had to write a little drabble fic and this came to mind.  
  
There will be a 'B' drabble as soon as I find the time to type it up (It already exist on paper so all I need to do is correct it and type it)  
  
Memories of a Serpent  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Later he wished he'd never seen that sketch. The one hanging over the costume in Ethan's shop, it all would have been better, simpler,  
if he never dressed up as that man. At the time he had not known anything about that manga/anime and if he'd known what the man stood for, he would have not even touched, not even thought about dressing up like that.  
  
But at the time all he saw was a sketch of a stoic looking man in a black tunic of sorts, with clawed gloves and incredibly long black hair. He'd been drawn to that sketch, to that costume. Ethan had given him the costume for almost free and he'd been so happy... until the spell changed them into their costumes.  
  
And Xander Harris became Touda, the Leaping Serpent, one of the 12 highest ranked Shikigamis and ruler of the black flames from Hell.  
  
For one moment the shikai no hakaisha stood there not knowing what had happened, but then all hell broke loose.  
  
If not for the interference of the Powers that Be, the world would have stopped existing that night. But their interference was not without a price to be paid. While the others were returned to their normal state of being, his two minds were merged into one.  
Shikigami he had become, Shikigami he would remain... for the rest of his eternity.  
  
They send him away, to a newly forming dimension. To give him a second chance, they said, but he knew better. He'd been too strong and too dark to remain in his home dimension.  
  
And so he went and watched as a new dimension came into being.  
He saw the forming of the different worlds from a handful of dust.  
And there, in the Gensoukai he found others like him, other Shikigamis. Sohryuu, the Waterdragon, Suzaku, the Phoenix, Byakko,  
the Windtiger, Genbu, the Turtle of the earth and many others, but they all remained distant to him, for they were afraid of his powers. The power of Hellfire, that could even kill a Shikigami.  
  
So time went by and he amused himself by working for the Golden Emperor... but even that went boring after several eons. One last order he would fullfil, he promised, but than he would ask for his release. The Golden Emperor gave him that order, but when he returned, to be released from his position, he was arrested and tied as a traitor. The Golden Emperor had decided that his powers were too dangerous and had set him up.  
  
He didn't defend himself at his trial, why should he? Who would believe him, anyway? Once again he was called shikai no hakaisha and sentenced to life in darkness. They chained him up in the deepest, darkest cell of Tenkuu and left him there.  
  
In the darkness days bleed into each other as time became meaningless, weeks bcame months became years became decades.  
  
But then, one day, a bit light entered his prison, in form of a young Shinigami with violet eyes, who broke his chains and offered him his hand.  
  
For a moment he looked at the hand bewildered. In all his time as a Shikigami, nobody ever had offered him his hand. He looked up,  
straight into the eyes of the young Shinigami and made his decision.  
For in the eyes of the young man, he could recognise innocence and trust like he hadn't seen since the oh so very far away days when he had been Xander. His own innocence had died away and his trust had been terribly shattered, but he wanted to protect the young one, for he still had so much of it, despite his dark and often bloody job. There would be sacrifices to be made, he knew that, and the other Shikigami would avoid and hate him even more than before, but,  
and he watched the innocent eyes light up, it was worth it and he took Tsuzuki's hand.  
  
End  
  
Shikigami: Spirit God  
  
shikai no hakaisha: Destroyer of worlds  
  
Gensou Kai: Spiritworld  
  
Tenkuu: a living building and strong Shikigami in itself  
  
Shinigami: Angel of Death 


	14. Tiger Symetrie

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
12th B drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Xover with Yami no Matsuei After reading the Gensou Kai Arc and what is there from the Kamakura Arc I had to write a little drabble fic and this came to mind.  
  
This is the 'B' drabble I had promised to type up some time ago,  
when I posted 'A'.  
  
Tiger Symetrie  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Do ever had that feeling that Murphy is out to get you? That the old bastard has made his stupid law for you and only you?  
Then you know how Xander felt.  
  
First being 'voluntered' by that troll Snyder to do the kiddie duty,  
then that fight with Larry and now that: a little boy grinning as he bought the last toygun.  
Which meant: that there were no guns left in the bargain bin.  
Xander groaned. No gun equaled no soldier costume. Who had ever heard of a soldier without a gun?  
  
Angrily he started digging through the bargain bin, searching for something he could use.  
  
A trident... no way! Living on the hellsmouth was bad enough, he didn't need to remind himself of the bad stuff. A pair of small fairy wings and a sparkly stick... who was he kidding? A troll mask and ugrh, that thing was damned ugly. A broomstick and a witchhat... maybe for Willow, but not for him. He dug deeper.  
  
After demissing several cheap monster masks and other junk, he wound up with a headband with cat ears, a black and white striped tail and black and white facepaint. Hmmm... that had possibilities Not much but it was better than the alternative, buying a ghostsheet.  
Ghosts where Willows domain and one ghost as a kiddie-leader was enough, make it two and the brats would get confused.  
  
And so he had dressed up in a simple white shirt and black jeans,  
the tail clipped on and the headband mostly hidden in his hair.  
Willow had helped him with the facepaint and after doing his face,  
she had used the rest of the white to make stripes in his hair.  
Viola, one white tiger ready to please.  
  
And maybe he would have survived the night ok, with only a few tiger memories in his brain to acompany the hyena ones, if a certain English chaos wizard who should remain unnamed, hadn't had decided to spice things up a little, when he had found out that Xander was the Slayers friend. A little added charm to the headband, done when he had taken the items to the register and one ordineary white tiger became something much more.  
  
Byakko, the guardian of the west, wind tiger, spirit god. And his form had been huge. He had been bigger than a normalsized car and had been able to carry one or two fullgrown humans on his back without complaints. The fact that he was able to talk and think like a human had been a plus too. He might not have known who he was, that night, but still he had been able to help the others.  
  
Then, when the spell had been broken, when the bust of Janus had been shattered on the floor and they all had reverted to their normal selves, he had learned about the downside of becoming a spirit tiger... even if only for one night.  
  
He had turned back to human form, but there were some differences that simply couldn't be hidden. His eyes, they were red now, rubyred and the pupils were slitted like that of a cat. His hair was longer, a lot longer than before, but the worst, and he glared down at the traitorus appendage, the worst was the long white and black striped tail that had become a true part of him.  
  
To make it short, Xander was not amused.  
  
He would have been even more angry at the situation if he had known about the meeting that happened in the JuuOhCho, a part of the Japanese Meifu, several hours after the spell had been broken.  
  
So it was a good thing that he didn't know about the fact that his life had just been drastically turned around right now.  
There were time enough for that later.  
  
Right?  
  
End 


	15. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 13th drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
This time it is theme costumes... everyone has to dress up as someone from... well just read it.  
  
Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Xander was cursing under his breath as he looked at the few choices that had remained for him.  
  
'Why, oh why for Gods sake did Snyder have to make it theme costumes?' He asked the heavens, but he recieved no answer.  
Snyder, in his 'great' wisdom, had decided, that all the students, he had voluntered for the guardian duty, had to dress up in a theme. 'Graceful' as he was, he had let the students decide which theme via the old trusted method of drawing a lot out of a hat. Unfortunately Jonathon was in his Rurouni Kenshin phase and it had been his lot, that Snyder had drawn.  
  
So now, here he was, after he had plundered his hidden stash of money, to get the costume of a halfway decent character of the Kenshin crew, only to find out that his first preference,  
Sanosuke Sagara had already been chosen by someone else, as was his second choice, Shinomori Aoshi, leader of the Oniwa Banshuu.  
  
His shoulders were too broad for the Saitou costume and the Enishi one was too small. Actually most of the costumes had been made for smaller, or slimmer persons. Unfortunately, that left him with a brunch of more or less stupid enemies of Kenshin or... this. A darkblue gi top, pants, boots and wristbracers. That was ok, as well as the sword, that went with the costume. But the last item, the most obvious of the entire costume was so... so stupid! A mantle, white with red trimmings and a rather dracula-like top, that was the trademark of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu masters and in this special case, of Hiko Seijuro the 13th.  
  
Sure, Hiko Seijuro the 13th was not bad a character, sarcastic and skilled. As Kenshins teacher he was in possesion of the most dangerous sword technices of entire Japan, he could kick Kenshin around and humilitae him with childhood stories if he wanted to. If only the mantle didn't look like a bad dracula reject!  
  
But on the other side, he didn't want to run around as one of the bad guys, so the stupid mantle it would be. He took the costume to the front, where the British guy, Ethan something or other, had just announced a fiften percent discount on all costumes. Xander smiled as he watched him ring up his purcase.  
Fiften percent would mean several packs of twinkies. If he had to walk around like and idiot, he would at least have some twinkies to soothe his stung pride.  
  
---  
  
Xander looked at the rest of the group before they went out to collect their number of brats for the evening. He had to admit that the idea with the theme costumes didn't look so stupid now.  
They looked good. Willow had put black dye into her hair, but the removable kind, and along with the simple Japanese clothing and hte wooden bokken, she made a good Kaoru. Next to her stood Daniel Osborne, called Oz, who Snyder had roped into this task as well, he was going as Kenshin.  
  
Buffy wore ninja clothing and a long black wig braided into a tail, she was Misao. Xander laughed when he saw the one who had been forced into Aoshi's costume, Giles was grumbleing something about an adult supervisor and that Buffy had choosen his costume for him, but he had to admit that, personality wise, Giles was perfect for Aoshi.  
  
Robert Tassle, a senior he didn't knew much about, was wearing the Sanosuke costume and ruefully Xander had to admit that he filled the costume better than he ever could. There was none Yahiko, but he had expected as much... who would want to dress up as a kid student when there were more interesting costumes around?  
  
He couldn't put a name to the guy in the Saitou costume and he had to look twice before he recognized Jonathon, who was dressed up as Chou the Swordhunter. It seemed that no one had wanted to go as Enishi.  
  
The white cape with the red trimmings still looked a bit out of place, but not as stupid as he had thought it would. He smirked a bit as he waved Willow goodbye, Willow who was very obvious to the looks Oz was sneaking at her. It looked like someone had a little crush on someone else... good.  
  
---  
  
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, iritated by the fact that he didn't need to wear his glases anymore.  
  
Helloween had been... different.  
  
He couldn't say that it was a desaster, for he hated lying to himself, but he wasn't sure how to classify it correctly.  
  
Being turned into someone else was not a experience he would want to suffer through again, yet he couldn't say that he hadn't benefit from it.  
  
When the spell had been brocken, everyone had reverted back to their normal forms, except for those, whos bodies had a very high concentration of foccused ki. The spiritual energy had interfered with the spell, and the possesing spirits had more or less merged with their hosts, changing mind and body and also allowing them to keep their possesions they had carried with them.  
  
He was Rupert Giles, watcher, but at the same time he also was Shinomori Aoshi, leader of the Oniwa Banshuu... and very happy that Buffy had reverted back to herself, he wouldn't have been able to deal with an amorous Buffy/Misao mix.  
  
Michael Long Fei had combined with Saitou, with Michael being the more dominant personality.  
  
Robert was Robert, Sanosukes ki hadn't been strong enough to merge and Willow and Jonathon were similarly unaffected.  
  
The biggest changes had been wrought in Xander and Oz. Aoshi/Giles watched amused as Xander bopped Oz in the head with his sheated sword, yelling at him for letting the school die by not teaching the art to a worthy deshi and he smiled as he heard the faint 'oro' of protest.  
  
And Giles/Aoshi thought about the hellsmouth and the fact that there were now four master swordsmen living in Sunnydale,  
two of them masters of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu and his smile grew bigger.  
  
The poor vampires wouldn't know what had hit them.  
  
"Baka deshi!" a voice bellowed in the background.  
  
The Aoshi part settled back and watched... he felt at home already.  
  
fin 


	16. Interlude: Who is Who

Xander groaned as a new costume was dropped in front of him. "Again? I have to go through the entire fiasco again? How many different costumes will you put me through until you are satisfied?" The authoress scowled at the uncooperative protagonist. "You will have to go through it as long as the stupid bunnies don't leave me in peace." And she poited behind her, where a horde of bunnies could be seen playing. A really big horde... and it was getting bigger by the minute.  
  
He groaned again. "You live to torture me, do you?"  
  
"Hey, that's not fair! Don't tell me you didn't had fun, dressing up as some of those characters!"  
  
"Well, let me see: In "A little Helloween Music" you made me merge with someone who broods more then Deadboy and who's reflex to kill first and ask no questions later I had a horroble time to suppress. Do you know that I had a really miserable time regarding mirrors afterwards?  
  
"In "Willow's Choice" you turned me into a baby stealing, singing and tights wearing creature that loves to mess up the minds of any young female he encounters!  
  
" Then there was "Magic of Helloween". Ok, I'll give you that one. Nothing bad happened to me there. By the way, why did the Avada Kedavra work on Spike? I mean he is a vamp, undead, how can you kill him again?"  
  
"I'm a big subscriber to the theory that the killing curse works by destroying the connection between body and spirit. Since vampires are basically corpses, animated by an demonic spirit, it should work on them as well."  
  
"OK. Going on there was "Angel of Helloween" That was damned scary! You basically turned me into Death itself! And have you any idea how much those damned wings weight?  
  
"Then there was the "Matching Costumes" episode. Well he was not bad a character to be for a night, but then you saddled me with the magical equivalent of a sentinent atomic bomb with that stupid juwel!"  
  
He took a deep breath and ranted on.  
  
"I don't have much to say about "Consequences of wounded Pride", it's one of the few I'm ok with  
  
"But then you realy started to torture me: "Fate's Game", not only did you left me stuck in that form, but you dropped my older Halfbrother onto my doorstep. How often does he have to try and kill me before you realize that he is not the nice brother you wanted me to have?  
  
"Unfinished" He took a deep breath and his brown eyes became larger, with a traitorus wet sheen and his lower lip wobbled. "You really hate me sometimes, do you?"  
  
"Then there were two variations of "Helloween, after Colony Style", basically varieties of the soldier thing, I can deal with that."  
  
"But then you decided to go all out, didn't you? "Like a Shephred", I had Stigmatas for an entire year before they went away! Willow can't look at me anymore and could you please do something about this aura thingie? It is very annoying to glow like that!  
  
"And because you were on your God trip, you had to turn me into another one in "Ruler of the Waves", right. But why him? Why Poseidon and not Ares? It would have made more sense if you turned me into the War God than into the Sea God."  
  
"Because another author already had written you as Ares, I checked before I started the story. I wanted to put you down as Ares first, but after I found that story, I decided to switch it. Satisfied?"  
  
"No, I'm not! 'Cause now we are coming to the fic I had the most problems with: "Memories of a Serpent". Not only did you turned me into a bigass Snakegod with HELLpowers, you almost made me destroy the world, got me booted out of my Universe and stuck in another, you also made me a loner, because nobody wanted to get close to me and YOU PUT ME IN JAIL! I WAS CHAINED DOWN IN A DARK DAMP PRISON CELL FOR MORE THAN THREEHUNDRED YEARS!"  
  
"Don't blame that on me, blame it on the manga-ka who wrote the characters. Anyway I like Touda and you got out afterwards, didn't you?"  
  
He glared at her, but she just smiled at him.  
  
"Then there was "Tiger Symetrie". I got stuck with a tail and the cat ears, the Japanese Meifu is after me and I'm unable to go out cause even on the Hellsmouth people will notice me."  
  
"And finally the last one so far, "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu". Not only did you made me dress up in the Mantle of Doom, you made be being stuck with Hiko afterwards! I admit he is a master swordsman, but he's also an arrogant asshole that drinks alcohol like other people dring water and loves to brag about himself."  
  
"Poor Xander. But until the bunnies leave me alone, you will have to deal with it."  
  
The mass of bunnies had grown into a twitching, wiggeling mountain and Xander sighed.  
  
"Well, who is it this time?"  
  
He asked as he reached for the costume.  
  
The authoress smilled. Evilly  
  
"Well that... is a secret."  
  
The characters so far:  
  
1) Erik from "Phantom of the Opera" (Book/Musical/Movies)  
  
2) Jareth from "Labyrinth" (Movie)  
  
3) Severus Snape from Harry Potter (Movies/Books)  
  
4) Modelled after Azrael from Wolfgan Hohlbein's "Azrael" (Book)  
  
5) (Bel-) Garion from David Eddings Belgariad/Malloreon Saga (Books)  
  
6) Yami Yuugi from "Yu-Gi-Oh" (Anime/Manga)  
  
7) Inuyasha from "InuYasha" (Anime/Manga)  
  
8) Edward from "Edward Scissorhands" (Movie)  
  
9) Duo Maxwell from "Gundam Wing" (Anime/Manga)  
  
10) Zechs Merquise from "Gundam Wing" (Anime/Manga)  
  
11) Jesus from the Bible  
  
12) Neptune/Poseidon from Greek/Roman Mythology  
  
13) Touda from "Yami no Matsuei" (Anime/Manga)  
  
14) Byakko from "Yami no Matsuei" (Anime/Manga)  
  
15) Hiko Seijuro the 13th from "Rurouni Kenshin" (Anime/Manga) 


	17. For the Love of Dragons

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 14th drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Just because I like Xellos catchphrase a lot (I use it to torment my younger siblings) that doesn't mean I do a Slayers Xover next. Often I use the phrase because it IS a secret until I deem to uncover it.  
  
And to my dear Flamer: If you think Xander as Xellos is lame,  
nobody forces you to read the fic. Flames like that are brainless,  
useless and stupid. They don't help the author to get better at writing and only show disregard for the fic itself.  
  
Constructive critic on the other side is always willcomed, will be considered objectively and used to make my stories better.  
  
For the Love of Dragons  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Xander looked around in the shop with a hidden joy he hadn't felt in a long time. This shop had a lot of rather unusual costumes and so he could make one of his fantasies into reality,  
finally. For a long time he had wished to do this, ever since he first had become fascinated with those beings and here, in this shop he had found everything to fullfill his plan.  
  
It would cost more than the simple soldier costume he had thrown together, but sometimes you had to splurge the money and indulge yourself. And in this case, it was really worth it.  
  
He looked at the items he had collected so far. An oldfashioned royalblue men's kimono with dragon motive, light blue and silver body paint, pointy ears and fake fangs and, last but not least, long stylised claws. All he needed now was the wig and the contact lenses and he was set.  
  
---  
  
Xander looked into the mirror and smiled. It had taken him a long time to finish his look for the evening, but it was really spectacular. He was dressed in the kimono and every bit of visible skin had been painted a very light blue with a silver scale pattern.  
The longhaired wig had been done in a complicated eastern style and the fake pointy eartips added their own bit of exocitness to it. Blue contacts with slitted pupils had radically changed his eyes and a bit of eyeliner gave them the illusion of a more oriental ancestery. The finishing touches were the fangs, that gave his smile a certain touch of danger and the claws he had glued to his fingernails. It was perfect. He slipped his tabi clad feet into the zori sandals and was finished for the evening. One last twirl in front of the mirror to check if everything was alright and then he was of to Buffy's house.  
  
He couldn't wait for Willows and Buffys reaction.  
  
---  
  
Giles raced after Willow, slowed down by the fact that he had to open the doors she ghosted through. Finally he was outside.  
  
"Willow! Where is Xander? Why couldn't you just tell me what he has become?"  
  
She just pointed upwards.  
  
He looked up and gasped.  
  
Undulating between the few clouds, at least 70 feet long, with scales in several varieties of blue, long streaming and delicate looking whiskers and five deadly claws at each of his four legs,  
there was the being Xander had become.  
  
"You see, Giles," Willow said with a small voice, "Xander absolutely loves Eastern dragons."  
  
End  
  
tabi socks: japanese socks that have a split in the sock for the large toe so that they may comfortably be worn with sandals.  
  
zori sandals: japanese sandals that have a flat bottom. 


	18. Ethan's deadly Mistake

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 15th drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: I was working on thr next part of 'Gemini' when this litl' bunny bit me... It is very short, but I think it is rather fitting for that character. If someone wants to expand it, please do, I think it had tons of potential.  
  
Ethan's Mistake  
By Simone of the Zordiak  
  
"Ethan Rayne, Shi-ne!!!"  
  
A katana flashed and stuck. Its accuracy was deadly and the fearful suprise was etched onto Ethan Raynes face forever, as he toppled over, dead.  
  
Behind the katana wielding red-head, Rupert Giles, a.k.a. Ripper stood, staring at the scene that played out in front of him in open shock. Yes, he'd come here with the intend to give Ethan the beating he so rightly deserved and to force him to undo his spell. But he had never thought about killing Ethan. Obviously the transformed Xander didn't have those scruples. Now he wished that he'd asked Willow to be more specific about Xander's costume. Just who was 'Aya' of 'Weiss Kreuz'?  
  
tbc  
  
Fujiyama Ran/Aya (from Weiss Kreuz) 


	19. Of Janus and Costumes and Xander

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 16nth drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Of Janus and Costumes and Xander  
By Simone of the Zordiak  
  
When Ethan Rayne finished his plea to Janus, when he felt the power coursing through him, he laughed. He thought about ghosts and monsters and a total inefficent slayer. But there was one thing he hadn't even wasted a thought for. In all his work and research for this night, he never thought about the possible effects the spell would have, if someone dressed up as a real and still living character. Why should he? After all, he believed the costumes to be all fictional. Well, most of them where, but one costume, worn by one Xander Harris, unfortunately did not fall into this category.  
  
For him, the changes of his body would remain, even after the end of the spell, since the power of Janus didn't have to invent the physical matrix along which he was changed. It simply copied the matrix of the original and with that much power left over and the fact that the matrix was a real one, the change became permanent. Similarly the memories of the original were copied and dumped permanently into his brain, to merge with his real memories in one set.  
  
Had Ethan known about all of this, he would have tried to find as many true costumes as he could, but he would also have made sure to burn this particular one. Yet, since he had no clue, he was simply laughing as Janus power changed destiny.  
  
---  
  
Xander sighed as he left the crypt. Ever since the chaotic helloween he felt better sleeping in a crypt... sleeping in a coffin to be exact. And after displaying his new powers to the local vamps, he was left alone during his sleep. His powers... a lot had changed since that night, his diet, his looks, his race. All because one chaos mage didn't bother to research his spell correctly.  
  
Well, if he hadn't let Ethan talk him into this costume to impress Buffy, none of this would have happened, but it was too late now, to worry about this.  
  
Instead he should worry about this uneasy feeling he'd for the last few nights, as if someone was searching for him.  
  
Then he saw IT. A huge black castle, slowly taking form, at the outskirts of the city.  
  
He cursed and ran towards the libary, his long, wavy, brown hair fluttering after him, not unlike a flag.  
  
This was not good. He could claim to say that this was really bad. How could he explain all that had happened to the owner of that castle, the one that was especially here for him?  
  
How could he survive telling Buffy and the other Scoobies, that Dracula had come to take his wayard son home?  
  
fin  
  
I present: from Konamis CastleVania: Symphony of Darkness Adrian Farenheight Trepes, dhampir, Son of Dracula 


	20. Sweet Dreams are Made of These

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 17th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Sweet Dreams are Made of These  
  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He gave himself a last once over, satisfied with the effect his costume created. Xander was happy. At first the thought of dressing up and guiding a group of squealing kids through a demoninfesteed town hadn't been that appealing, specially since he hadn't had the money for a good costume, but then, when he had seen IT, hanging on a rack in Ethan's Costume Shoppe, his mood had spectacularly improved. No one would dress up in the same costume, he was sure of it. Not like the dime a dozen soldier costume he'd thought of first. And best of it, he'd managed to rope Dawn into going with him. As he closed the door on his way to pick up Buffy and the others, he wondered what Buffy would say about her sisters choice of costume.  
  
---  
  
When Buffy opened the door, she needed several moments to recognise the stranger standing before her.  
  
Black was the theme of his clothes, black jeans, shirt and boots and a black leather trenchcoat completing the ensemble. His hair was wild and unruly and black and his eyes electric blue, contrasting strongly with the pale, oh so pale skin. Around his neck hung a chain with a big red stone and secured to his belt was a small leather pouch. Xander's transformation was startling.  
  
"Lady Buffy," he bowed courtly, "I have come for my sister."  
  
Sister?  
  
"I am ready, brother." Dawn's voice came from behind her.  
  
She turned around and for the first time, saw the costume her sister had chosen.  
  
Dawn looked like a Goth girl, dressed in black with black and white make-up and a big silver ankh on a simple necklace. Her hair was thankfully not dyed like Xanders, but hidden under a black wig.  
  
"Brother Dream," she greeted Xander.  
  
"Sister Death," he returned the greeting. Then he grinned widely, destroying the serious image of his costume. "You look good, Dawn-patrol."  
  
"You too, Xander."  
  
"Well, ready to scare the living daylights out of some kids?"  
  
"Always, brother Dream. Always."  
  
---  
  
An Endless is an Endless is an Endless.  
  
And just because there were no human manifestation of them, it didn't mean that they were not there.  
  
But when two of the seven found human vessels primed for them, they didn't debated for long, but reached out to them, infusing them, merging with and into them.  
  
And when the spell ended they didn't change back, because they were Endless.  
  
And an Endless is an Endless.  
  
---  
  
"Dream," Death greeted her brother as she met him in his palace, right in the middle of the Dreaming. "I have wondered if you have found vessels for our brothers and sisters yet."  
  
"Two, Death. A female vampire, who will carry the mantle of Delirium and a human male, which will become the carrier of Destiny. And when Destiny is with us, it will be no problem to find the right vessels for Destruction, Desire and Despair."  
  
"And the chaos mage?"  
  
"He is no problem," Xander grinned toothily and his pupil-less blue eyes flickered with glee, "even Ethan Rayne sleeps and dreams, just like any other human and let's just say that his dreams are rather 'vivid' right now."  
  
end  
  
From The Sandman (Neil Gaiman's version)  
  
I present:  
  
Xander = Dream of the Endless  
  
Dawn = Death of the Endless 


	21. Wizzard

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 18th drabble in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Wizzard  
  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
His hand had just closed around the toygun, when he saw something very interesting halfway hidden in a corner of the shop. A shabby looking red robe with yellow moons and stars, a hat, equally colored and shabby, with the word 'Wizzard' stenciled in front and a miniature chest with hundred little legs. And all for only five dollars!  
  
Oh, yes! This was far better than the stereotype soldier he'd choosen to be and it fit his personality a lot more than the soldier costume would have.  
  
Rincewind the failed wizard who tried to live a boring life, but always found himself in the middle of the most strange adventures. And the Luggage, faitfull companion of Rincewind, with the determination to remain his companion that couldn't be detered by gods, strange dimensions and time distortions.  
  
And the best was that it only cost three dollars more than he would have paid for the gun.  
  
---  
  
He had found himself right in the middle of danger, again. Chaos and screaming everywhere around him, why wasn't he supriesed? The only problem he ad was that he didn't know where he could run to, where he would be save, where there wasn't any danger.  
  
There was a ghost girl, claiming to know him, a screaming Lady and a creature that felt dead to his senses. And Luggage of course, but since Luggage was always with him, he didn't really thought about it.  
  
---  
  
She had warned him, told him not to go out. Something about a kitty and its box, she had sung a lot about the kittys bad box, but he hadn't listened. Now he wished he had. The teeth, the horrible white teeth where the last thing he ever saw, as he was swallowed.  
  
---  
  
"Xander."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What happened to Spike, I saw him hunt you."  
  
"He ate him," Xander grinned and pointed at the Luggage.  
  
The Luggage licked its rim with its mahagony-red tongue and Buffy was sure that it was grinning at her as it opened its lid, displaying several pairs of freshly washed socks, a few undershirts and boxers, all freshly pressed and one carefully folded leather trenchcoat... all smelling softly like lavender.  
  
fin 


	22. Quick as Silver

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 19th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Quick as Silver  
  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He couldn't get rid of the feeling that Willow, his bestest buddy and friend, had a slight crush on him. What else could be the reason for her to double-dog-dare him into wearing a tight spandex costume at halloween?  
  
Well, a dare is a dare and he would fulfill his bestes buddies wishes. But which costume should he take?  
  
There was a stereotype Superman costume, but he decided against it. It had to be spandex, but that was no reason for him to become the laughingstock of the entire school. A Batman costume hung next to it, but did he really want to dess up as the brooding dark knight? Nope, one brooder was enough and he had no desire to ursup deadboys place. The Spiderman costume had already been sold and he had no desire to go as a villan, so the Venom, Green Goblin and the Riddler were out... although he had to admit that he almost went with the Magneto costume, until he saw the helmet. He absolutely and utterly refused to wear a costume if he had to wear a strange bucket helmet[1], no sir, not this Xander!  
  
The next costume he had to think for a moment to remember who it was, but then he knew. And it had definetly potential. True, the man had quite a checkered past, a quick temper and a very disfuncitional family, but if he remembered his comics correctly, he was a good guy, a member of the Avengers even.  
  
So, it was an ok costume and not that expensive, two good reasons to hire the costume for the night.  
  
He took the black and silverish white costume to the register, where he was able to wraggle out a few percent discount with the owner of the shop, never noticing the halfway psychotic grin of the man as he left with his purchase.  
  
---  
  
Xander tried to calm down and think. Thinking was not a problem, but calming down was. His world was fast now, his minutes, seconds for the rest of the world, and the worlds minutes were passing like hours for him.  
  
It had been a week since halloween, an endless week since his life had been turned upside down with no chance of being put back into the old lanes.  
  
His hair was still white, his eyes still blue and he still was the fasted living being on earth. And he had the feeling that this wouldn't change in the near future.  
  
Well, he was a lot more useful on patrols now, staking vamps and running on before the suckers had even notived that they had been put out of the game. And his research skills had shoot through the roof as well as his grades... kids play if you could read and memorize the entire libary in one evening.  
  
But there was one thing, one thorn in his new life that he couldn't help but think and be angry about. Jonathan had worn the Magneto costume that halloween night, ugly bucket helmet and all and he absolutely refused to call that twit father.  
  
fin  
  
[1] I'm thinking about the Comic costume, not the Movie version and every time I see that thing I think 'Bucket'. What can I say, it's like those strange inkblot pictures, you see what you see. 


	23. Silent and Glorious

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 20th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Yes, I should continue Evolution or Gemini, but I was playing my fav. Game and this bunny told me I should write it first.  
  
Silent and Glorious  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
When Xander had entered Ethan's Costume Shoppe, the eyes of the owner had lid up in malicious glee. The boy didn't knew it, but he was a well of chaos magic, something very rare and precious and absolutely ideal for one of his 'special costumes'.  
  
It was ridiculously easy to lure him to the backroom of his shop, where he was storing the amplified costumes, those that would only work if worn by a chaos well, but would work till the end of the wearers existence. A spell on the archway of the door insured that every costume was a perfect fit for the customer.  
  
And so he watched with hidden amusement as the boy looked through the clothes and props he'd specially prepared for people just like him.  
  
The boy quickly decided against the vampire, the devil and the demon costumes he'd placed on the rack and equally quickly made his choice against the few superhero costumes. A bright lad and his way of choosing showed Ethan that he'd made the right decision bringing him here.  
  
Finally the boy stopped and went with an ensemble Ethan didn't knew very much about, he had bought the costumes from other stores and had imbued them with magic, he didn't need to know the history of the costumes character.  
  
It didn't matter, after this night the boys life would change, his mind merging with the one of his costume character to become an amalgam, never to be separated again.  
  
He watched the young man leave with his purchase and he had to use all his self-control not to laugh maniacally, until the door had firmly closed behind his last victim.  
  
---  
  
The next day, after the mayhem was over, the scoobies were meeting in the library to exchange experiences.  
  
Buffy was talking about the unsettling feeling of being a noble lady of the 18th century, Willow about the way she'd felt when she had seen her own body lying on the porch of the house. And Xander...?  
  
The being Xander had become was sitting in his chair, silent and smiling. He was playing with a black marble-like thing and in the back if his mind he remembered the screams of the traitorous shop owner, before he had killed him. And if anybody had cared to really listened, they would have heard the faint music, the choir surrounding him:  
  
Estuans interius  
ira vehementi.  
Estuans interius  
ira vehementi.  
Sephiroth  
Sephi--  
  
End 


	24. Kokoro no Ryuujin

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 21st drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Kokoro no Ryuujin  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He sighed as he looked at his watch, again. Buffy and Willow were late. His foot started to tap a rhythm into the asphalt and his movements became more and more frustrated. Normally he would simply enter the shop, buy his costume and be done with it, but Willow made him promise to wait for them, so that they could pick out their costumes together.  
  
So here he was, watching others entering and then leaving the store again, clutching their bags with their props and clothes and sometimes showing it eagerly to their friends, while he was waiting here, his storage of patience growing steadily smaller as he still couldn't see the two.  
  
Then, finally, they were here and both of them hugged him, to reward his patience.  
  
---  
  
This hug should seal his fate, for Ethan saw it and realised that he was a friend, an obviously close friend of the slayer and thus deserved something special for this very night.  
  
The slayer was easily satisfied, the dress of the noblewoman would either kill her due to her incompetence, or give her nightmares for some months, either way making him almost deliriously happy.  
  
The redhead female friend of the slayer bought a ghostsheet among other things and he was almost sure that she would hide herself under the sheet, meaning that she would survive as long as nobody did something to her body... well he couldn't get them all.  
  
But what to do about the boy? Hmmm... maybe... oh yes! He smiled gently as he steered the boy to a costume that practically guaranteed chaos and havoc.  
  
---  
  
Xander stepped back and eyed his work with a critical eye, then he smiled. Sure, the shrine was small, nothing compared to the splendours temple he remembered, but it was done with love and faith, it would work, it was all he could do for now.  
  
As he knelt down to speak the words of a prayer he had never spoken before, yet knew as intimately as his own heartbeat, he felt closure, something like finally coming to an end.  
  
For a month, ever since that strange Halloween night he had felt this longing, this need to build this shrine and pray.  
  
And now, that he could see the ghostlike form of his god, that he could feel the kokoro sigil burning on his forehead once again, he finally felt complete.  
  
In his last life, the little boy Ayuru had been forced to take on this burden, but this time he knew what was waiting for him, this time he took on the burden freely.  
  
Once more he shed his old name, once more he was rebaptized in the spiritual fire of his god.  
  
There was no Xander anymore, there was only Nakago.  
  
End 


	25. The Boy and the Ghost

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 22nd drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
The Boy and the Ghost  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Sometimes fate works in mysterious ways. No, that's not right. Actually fate Always works in mysterious ways, having invented the entire mystic aura-thingiee to match its work. Sometimes it has to pull a lot of strings, each a life, each a destiny waiting to happen. And sometimes the strings get tangled. But fate never mentions something like that, it would be bad for its mysterious aura.  
  
This time, there were not many strings to be manipulated, and there were no knots or tangles to hinder its plans. All fate had to do, was to make sure that there were no guns left in Ethan's Costume Shoppe, by the time a certain Xander Harris entered the shop.  
  
---  
  
Xander listlessly fished around in the bargain bin. No rifles, no guns, not even a simple pistol had been left in Ethans shop, after the grade-schoolers had stormed the place.  
  
There was a lot of useless junk, cheap demon masks, plastic wands with glitter, vampire fangs and fake bunny ears, but nothing that he would wear guiding a brunch of kids.  
  
Then his hand closed around something different and he pulled it out to see what he'd found.  
  
Hmmm... a pair of headphones, a claw necklace and a strange holster with a small stone tablet in it.  
  
Oh yes... this definitely had potential. He only needed to add a fake katana and he was set.  
  
---  
  
It was strange, he thought as he made his way to visit Jesses grave. All this trouble, all this pain the chaos spell at Halloween had done, but he felt like he should hunt down Ethan to give him a hug. Finally he understood why the demons and other critters were so drawn to him, finally he knew why HE of all people had ended up with the hyena matriarch and not one of the girls.  
  
He had had the potential to become a shaman, past tense, because of the crash course of being Asakura Yoh for one night, he WAS a shaman now. All he had to do know, was practice what he had learned through Yoh, to commit it firmly into his memory.  
  
"Where are we going to, master?"  
  
That was the other 'gift' he had gained on Halloween. When Asakura Yoh had called his bonded companion spirit from his resting place in the stone tablet, the spirit Amidamaru had been created by Janus chaotic magic. Once created he was there for good, nothing could uncreate him unless he decided to move on. And Amidamaru had decided to stay with him.  
  
"To visit an old friend."  
  
He didn't know how often he had gone to Jesses grave since his death, but he did knew that this was the first time Jesse would be there, to talk with him.  
  
And for that, he had to give Ethan a big hug if he ever saw him again... after he had punched him for selling that dress to Buffy.  
  
END 


	26. Red, Green, Silver

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 23th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Red, Green, Silver  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
Xander was annoyed. There was no other word for it, at least no nicer one, he was pissed off, peeved or simply put, annoyed.  
  
Here he was, in this crummy junky shop, trying to find a new, cheap costume, after his plan to go as a soldier was cancelled rudely, due to the fact that the water-pipe in the army surplus store had broken, drenching everything in the shop in ice cold water.  
  
He had run home, taking a few bills out of his secret stash and now was hoping to find a bearable cheap costume. If he was honest with himself, he'd already given up, it was simply too late to find something he could wear without the need for a bag over his head.  
  
Or... wait! There halfmashed in the corner of a clothesrack, hung a simple costume, consisting out of lose white kung fu pants, an equally white shirt and a red sash, that was to be tied around his waist. Also part of the costume where a pair of green coloured, cheap contact lenses and a longhaired red wig. He had no idea who this character was meant to be, but the costume was cheap and didn't looked half stupid so he bought it.  
  
---  
  
Shuuichi Minamino had no idea how he had gotten here, wherever here was, but he knew that he had to help those around him and he also knew that he alone wouldn't be enough. Even he couldn't be everywhere at the same time. But he had to try and help as many as he could.  
  
A girls scream cut through the air and something deep inside him recognised it. And it made him angry. Angry enough to let the reins of control slip and to let his other side out to play.  
  
Taller, silverhaired and with fox ears and tails, the kitsune was an impressive sight and every halfway intelligent monster fled, as he rushed to help the girl that had screamed.  
  
---  
  
The night after Halloween, Giles sat in the library, researching the spell Ethan had used. He was worried. Xander was looking a bit strange and from the tales he had heard, he had changed twice, once in his costume and then once more into a kitsune. And he had still traces of the costumes magic working on him. His hair had grown to the same length as the wig had been and there were red highlights in it and specks of green were in the brown of his pupils.  
  
Ethans spell was only good for one transformation per costume, but until he could find out exactly what had triggered the second transformation, he couldn't help Xander turning back to normal.  
  
---  
  
Halfway hidden behind stacks of books, there was a flowerpot, with a tiny, mostly withered plant a student had brought to the library once to make the room more lively. Giles watered it from time to time, but it was still small, halfway dead and mostly forgotten.  
  
Not anymore. Strong stalks and bushels of bright blossoms gave witness to the love Xander had bestowed on them.  
  
END 


	27. Looking for an original sin

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 24th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Yesterday I went watching the musical and my bunnies went wild,  
so here a little something to release some creative steam.  
  
Looking for an original sin  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
For a group of vampire hunting teens, the mocking of vampire movies is an absolute must. The most dark and bloody drama becomes a comedy if you know the truth about vampires. But there is one movie they don't mock, one movie they love to watch and so they watch it again and again. That is "Dance of the Vampires" from Roman Polanski, a fun comedy that was mocking all the stereotypes of horror movies.  
  
And because of that, Xander had decided to go as a character of the movie this Halloween. Which one he didn't know, yet, since he didn't know what the costume shop was having for sale, but he would find something, of that he was certain.  
  
---  
  
Willow laughed as she saw his costume, Buffy did so too, both having recognized the one he was posing as quite quickly (no doubt because of the fact that they had rewatched the movie only yesternight).  
  
---  
  
Ethan had told him that he had gotten the costume from a sale of old theater costumes and that he could sell it to him at the cheap price he was demanding cause no one else had had the right height.  
  
Xander hadn't really cared about his explanations, he was happy that he had gotten his costume so cheaply and that it fit so well with his plans. There had been some minor adjustments he had to make, but then it was perfect.  
  
---  
  
As the spell swept through the town, changing children and adults into their costumes, he looked around, bewildered, before he decided that it didn't really mattered and started to walk into one direction randomly, quitely singing under his breath:  
  
"I've been looking for an original sin  
One with a twist and a bit of a spin  
And since I've done all the old ones  
Till they've all been done in  
Now I'm just looking then I'm gone with the wind  
Endlessly searching for an original sin"  
  
End 


	28. Necromancer's visist

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 25th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Necromancer's visit  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
There was no doubt that Willow was Xanders bestest friend in the whole wide world. But right now Xander wanted to grab her and shake her until her curiously absent sanity returned to her.  
  
It had all started so innocently, with her entering the costume shop to buy a costume. Bells had started to ring the moment she had stepped through the door and the shop owner had come to congratulate her for being the hundredst customer to enter his shop at his opening day. He had gifted her with two costumes, one for her and one for her date.  
  
So Willow had a costume, but unfortunately not a date. But... she had Xander. A wildly resisting and struggling Xander. No power of the world could force him to put on this costume..., no force, but Willow and Buffy working in tandem.  
  
Together they had applied the fake scars on his face and chest, had put him into the costume and had covered his own brown hair with the longhaired wig. The only thing he had to do now, the last bit of his costume he had objected the most and he still glared at his girls as he opened his mouth and slipped the fangs over his eyeteeth. A vampire! He couldn't believe it that they forced him to go as a vampire! Sure, Willow looked sexy with her temporally black dyed hair, the dress and the fake weapons she had hidden under it, but did he have to go as a vampire?  
  
Well Willow seemed to think yes and unfortunately she and Buffy had ganged up on him, so that he had no choice.  
  
---  
  
She had no idea where she was and how she had gotten here, but it looked like all hell was breaking loose and she couldn't feel neither Richard, which was bad, nor Jean Claude, which was even worse.  
  
So she was running through streets she didn't know, her Browning ready to fire, searching for a clue, any hint to where she was.  
  
"Anita." She turned around in time to watch the figure touch down on the street behind her. Long, unbound golden hair was fluttering in a breeze and pale blue eyes were locked on her. As he landed he flicked his head with a gesture that had become second nature to him, letting his hair covering the right side of his face... and the scars he bore.  
  
"Asher," she breathed with relief, suddenly believing that everything would be all right in the end.  
  
fin 


	29. The final prop

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 26th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
The final prop  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
When you didn't have much money, you could either be not picky about your Halloween costume, or you could go, searching through the materials you had and get creative. And so Xander was looking through some stuff his parents, or other relatives, had dumped in the attic of their home, after he had gone through the basement and his own room with little success.  
  
He had almost lost hope when he found it... the idea was doable and it wouldn't cost much to buy the items he couldn't find.  
  
---  
  
The mirror showed him a changed face. Costume make-up and some sure lines, he'd let Willow draw, to give his eyes a more oriental look, his dark hair and dark eyes doing the rest at creating the image of arabian ancestery.  
  
He had found an old caftan in one of the clothing trunks his parents had stowed in their attic and had forgotten about, something in a fake-indian look that had been fashionable during the hippie times,  
and he sooo didn't want to think about what his parents had done during those times.  
  
The trousers he had bought in the shop that had just opened and was advertising reduced opening prices, along with the shoes and the ring. Oh yes, the ring was important, without the ring he wasn't the real deal, but only the Disney version of the story and he wanted to be the real one.  
  
Finally he picked up the last prop. He had found it in the same trunk he had found his parents new age and hippie stuff in and from the way it looked, his parents had been crazy about India at that time, for it looked rather authentic.  
  
Well, it didn't really matter if the thing was a replica or the real deal, but as long as he had it, his costume would work.  
  
After all, who had ever read about Aladdin without reading about the lamp?  
  
fin 


	30. Under the Starlight

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 27th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Under the Starlight  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He was poking through the costumes in the newly opened shop. Sure,  
he had already decided to buy a toygun and be done with it, but looking wouldn't hurt, would it?  
No, of course not. Giles had told them that Halloween was a big no-no in the demonic community and so they were safe, for tonight.  
  
Someone pushed him from behind and since he had been a bit unfocused, he stumbled forward and nearly fell. That was when he saw 'IT'. It was original, it was in his size, it was... way too expensive. He sighed.  
  
"Can I help you?"  
  
Xander eeped as someone spoke up behind him.  
  
"Please," he said as he turned around to find that Ethan guy standing there, smiling rahter oily, "don't do that, I nearly stopped breathing."  
  
Ethan nodded apoleptically, then asked once again if he could be of help.  
  
Xander sighed and, more to get rid of the annoying salesman than anything else, he told him that he liked a certain costume, but that there was no way in hell that he could afford it.  
  
To his great suprise, Ethan offered him a deal, having him telling everyone where he had gotten the costume and getting said costume free of charge for the night.  
  
Xander was happy.  
  
---  
  
Spike was NOT happy. He had no idea where the big red steamtrain was coming from, but he knew, even before the first set of wheels had reached him, that this was going to hurt... a lot.  
  
fin 


	31. Magical red Darkness

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 28th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Once more it is time for theme costumes... everyone has to dress up as someone from... well just read it.  
  
Magical red Darkness  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
You know how there are day when you want to find a nice sturdy wall or something similar and bang your head against it, until everything just leaves you alone?  
  
Well, Xander was having such a day just now.  
  
Not bad enough that he had been 'voluntered' for the Halloween escort duty, he was also soley responsible for the mess of a costume he had to wear now.  
  
Snyder, in his 'great' wisdom, had decided, that all the students, he had voluntered for the guardian duty, had to dress up in a theme. 'Graceful' as he was, he had let the students decide which theme via the old trusted method of drawing a lot out of a hat. And Xander had just written down the name of an anime for Jonathan when Snyder had passed the two, snatched his piece of paper and deciding that this was Xander's vote, had put it in the hat. Three guesses which lot had been drawn... yes, his.  
  
And so he had to dress up as someone from 'Slayers'. Even worse, Willow and Buffy had decided that they would organise the costumes for the group. Armed with the measurements of the poor voluntered students, as well as some costume wishes,  
they had disappeared, to do the shopping thing.  
  
Xander's heart had sunken when he had seen the bag with his costume. He had hoped to go as Gourry Gabriev, sure, the man was notorically thick, but his costume was quite simple and he was a master with the sword. Willow had apologized, but said that the shop didn't had a breatplate and shoulder armor in his size and finally told him to live with the costume she and Buffy had choosen for him. Since her face had rearanged itself into the classic Willow-resolveface, he sighed and went to change into his costume.  
  
---  
  
The facepaint was itchy and he wanted to do nothing more than rip off the fake rocks that Willow had glued so lovingly to his skin and SCRATCH, but he couldn't... Buffy was glaring at him.  
  
Well, Buffy hadn't stopped glaring at him since he'd laughed at her choice of costume, princes Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova At least she was in the dress Martina had worn in the episode with the village of the women, so she looked halfway decent.  
  
Jonathan, lucky bastard that he was, was wearing the Gourry costume,  
but well, his shoulders were not as wide as Xander's and he was a bit smaller, too. He sighed and let it go.  
  
His eyes wandered through the room, landing first on Willow, who,  
suprise suprise, was going as Lina Inverse, then continued wandering to Cordelia, who was bitching about her Sylphiel costume, to Theresa,  
who looked quite cute in her Amelia costume and then Andrew Welles in the costume of Halciform. He had no idea what kind of costume Giles had been forced to wear, since the watcher/libarian had been forced to watch over the youngest of their charges and was already on the tour with them, he only heard Willow saying that he would knew it when he saw it. Buffy added that Giles, despite his protests,  
looked quite fetching in the costume they had choosen. Well, he would see it soon enough. The door opened one last time and if his eyebrows hadn't been hidden beneath tons of facepaint, the others would have seen his eyebrows trying to craw of his forehead.  
  
Someone had roped Oz into going as Maryuu-ou Gaav and, despite the fact that the redhead was far to slight for that role and the sword that went with the costume was almost two heads longer than he was tall, he somehow managed to pull it off. Respect.  
  
Willow gave the signal and they left the changing room, each going to the group they had been told to supervise. One hour,  
Xander thought, one hour and then he would be able to scratch all this itching paint from his face.  
  
---  
  
It was over, only that is was not. It seemed that the chaos mage had enchanted the costumes specially for them, after Buffy had mentioned Giles name while shopping. So the magic had been a bit different than that in the costumes of the young children.  
  
So he was Xander, Willow was Willow, Buffy was Buffy, yet at the same time they were not. Two sets of memories, two lifes crammed,  
merged into one body each. Willow was Lina, but far more balanced,  
not as hot tempered and a lot less self-concious about her chest than Lina had been. Buffy was Martina, but it looked like her Buffyself dominated the newly gained personality traits. And he?  
He was Xander, yet not. The fake rocks weren't itching anymore and neither were they fake any longer. His other personality had a tendency to bood and a temper that could explode if he didn't kept it tightly reined.  
  
The others were similarly affected and he felt a headache coming as he eyed Halciform/Andrew, Gaav/Oz and Gourry/Jonathan. Now he was happy that he hadn't fit that costume, but couldn't help but feel sorry for Jonathan, Gourry was notoriously thick.  
  
But that wasn't the worst of it all. Not the worst had been saved for his father/mentor figure.  
  
His eyes wandered to Giles. Giles, who was sitting dejectically by the main table, surrounded by books that he would never read again, never see again. Because for Giles to open his eyes was to allow his body to be consumed by the darkest evil entity ever known... all because Buffy and Willow had decided that he would look rather fetching in the red robes of aka houshi Rezo.  
  
fin 


	32. Interlude II : Who is Who II

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
An second interlude in my Helloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge:  
'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween.  
Xander once more has words with the authoress.  
  
Who is who II  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
He was waiting behind the door, trying to rush her as she opened it, balancing the instruments of his next torture, but unfortunately he didn't noticed the fuzzy small plotbunny trying to rub against his legs in hope of being noticed and stumbled.  
  
"Are you ok?" the authoress asked worriedly.  
  
A string of curses was answer enough for her.  
  
"What were you doing, by the way?" she asked curious.  
  
Xander glared at the costume she was still holding.  
  
"I was trying to save some of my dignity. Every time you enter the room with a costume I am forced into the most rediculus situations."  
  
"Oh come on, Xander. We have done such good work to make the mountain of drabble bunnies smaller and look, we already hit number thirty! Sure there are at least fifteen bunnies waiting to be written, but we have been making good work here, there are a lot less bunnies waiting now!"  
"You are saying, but it is me, who has to live with being turned into all those persons."  
  
She sighed.  
  
"Let it out, Xander. I know you won't be happy until your little rant."  
  
"Little rant?! LITTLE RANT!?!?"  
  
He took a deep breath, trying to calm down.  
  
"Well then let me get started:  
First there was "For the Love of Dragons". Do you know how disconnecting it is to be turned into a sixty foot dragon?  
I don't think so. It felt like nothing I ever experienced and damn it, it was painful with a capital 'P'.  
  
"The next one was "Ethan's deadly Mistake". It was short and it looked like nothing bad happened to me there and I got to turn Ethan into sushi..."  
  
"But?" the authoress asked.  
  
"But you promised to write a second part some day and I so do know that I am going to suffer in it."  
  
The authoress smiled as angelical as she could. Xander snorted.  
  
"Don't even try it, the next costume proves my point. You know which one I mean, "Of Janus and Costumes and Xander". You turned me into a brooding vampire..."  
  
"Dhampire," the authoress fell him into his word.  
  
"Ok, dhampire then. But not any dhampire, nooo sire, you had to turn me into the son of Dracula! And then you send "daddy" after me! Do you know how hard it was to explain that entire mess? No don't answer, don't even try to explain how I was forced to go to some nest in the Wallachia to meet the rest of the family.  
  
"And then, in the next one "Sweet Dreams are Made of These", you decided that it wasn't enough to torture me, you had to drag Dawn into the mess, turning her into Death of the Endless! Ok, I must admit, being Dream was cool, but it wasn't something I want to repeat.  
  
"To the next one. "Wizzard". I can live with being turned into Rincewind, the guy has the luck of the gods, surviving everything and always ending up in the most interesting adventures, but even in Sunnydale, it is rather hard to explain why there is a chest made out of intelligent pearwood following me everywhere and eating those that are a threat to me.  
  
"Then there was "Quick as Silver". You just had to saddle me with Jonathan as Magneto aka my father!!  
  
"And after that there was "Silent and Glorious". Not that nobody would notice that I'm taller, have glowing green eyes and silver colored hair that reaches down to my hips, nooo I have to share my head with the psycho. Hellooo he is so evil that he wanted to destroy all humanity, rip a hole into the plant and become a god!  
  
"Then the next one, "Kokoro no Ryuujin". I really could have lived without the memories of Nakago's last life. But, no, was his seemingly reincarnation, I get the front seat to all the bad stuff that happened to him.  
  
"Ok, I can understand the theory you created in "The Boy and the Ghost". Me being a demon magnet because I was an untrained shaman. But did you ever stopped to concider how many ghosts are existing on the hellmouth? And how many of them are unhappy and dangerous and, thanks to the training you gave me through Yoh, now my problem? I think not.  
  
"Shuuichi Minamino from "Red, Green, Silver" I could live with,  
but you had to throw his alternate form into the mix, had you?  
Now every time I get highly emotional I transform and it is very difficult to hide that fact.  
  
"The next one was a vampire, a singing one at that! Was this really nessessary? I mean the entire drabble "Looking for an original sin", was just written to make fun of me."  
  
"Oh, come on Xander, a vampire movie that mocks vampire movies,  
of course I had to write a Halloween drabble about it sooner or later. And Count von Krolock is actually one of the less mocked characters. Or would you rather have been Herbert, his gay son,  
or Alfred, assisstant vampire hunter and object of Herberts affection or Professor Ambronsius..."  
  
"Alright, alright, I rest my case, but did it have to be a singing version?"  
  
"So I went to the musical a few day earlier, sue me, or better complain to the bunnies, I'm sure they will understand."  
  
Xander sighed. He knew he couldn't win that one.  
  
"Well, then, to the next one. Another vampire, this one scared and so broody that he could give deadboy lessons in broddiness. I must say that "Necromancer's visit" was not something I particularly enjoyed. Ok, who am I fucking kidding here? I hated it! Asher has so many psychological problems that he makes any psychatrist run away screaming, he's drowing in his past and doesn't even know how to use a mobile phone!  
  
"Well, what's done is done. Let's talk about the next costume you forced on me: "The final prop". I have no idea what you wanted to accieve with that costume, but I do know that it was damned dangerous to release an, ignorant to demons and the supernatural,  
yet armed with two almost all-powerfull gienies, young man onto the hellmouth. What if he'd made a dangerous wish? I could have turned reality upside down and wouldn't have known any better.  
  
"But then you had to top your list of bad ideas with the next one.  
A train! Could it get worse than this? You turned me into a big red steamtrain in "Under the Starlight"!"  
  
The authoress shrugged and smiled... trying to hide a plush bunny behind her back... one with roller skates tied to its paws.  
  
"Ok, don't say anything, this drabble just answered my question, yes it can get any worse than a big red steamtrain. "Magical red Darkness" was the meanest drabble you have produced as of now! To take away Giles eyesight, his books, that was the crulest thing you ever did! True, what you did to the rest of us wasn't nice either,  
but Giles' change was the worst! He needs the books like I need twinkies! How could you?"  
  
"The bunnie demanded it that way, Xander. Slayers had to be a theme costume event with everyone dressing up. An since Giles is your mentor, your fatherfigure, he had to wear a costume that showed some kind of familar relation to you. First I thought about using the costume of Xellos for you, but the only relation Xellos has, is the greater Beast and she is female. The only male character that has living male family... at least at the beginning of the series,  
is Zelgadis and so both of your fates were sealed. Be happy that the next theme costume bunny is fifteen drabbles away."  
  
"Yeah, yeah... doesn't matter. What are you torturing me with this time?"  
  
"Oh, I think you will like it... this bunny had kind of loomed in my head for some time.  
  
"Joy."  
  
The characters so far:  
  
16) Eastern Dragon modeled after Souryuu from "Yami no Mastuei" (Manga)  
  
17) Fujiyama Ran/Aya from "Weiss Kreuz" (Anime/Manga)  
  
18) Adrian Farenheigh Trepes/Alucard from "Castlevania" (Videogame)  
  
19) Dream of the Endless from Neil Gaimans "Sandman" Saga (Books)  
  
20) Rincewind from Terry Pratchetts Diskword (Books)  
  
21) Quicksilver from "X-Men & Avengers" (Comics/Cartoons)  
  
22) Sephiroth from "Final Fantasy VII" (Videogame)  
  
23) Nakago/Ayuru from "Fushigi Yuugi" (Anime/Manga)  
  
24) Asakura Yoh from "Shaman King" (Anime/Manga)  
  
25) Shuuichi Minamino/Youko Kurama from "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" (Anime/Manga)  
  
26) Count von Krolock from "The Dance of the Vampires" (Movie/ Musical)  
  
27) Asher from "Anita Blake" (Books)  
  
28) Aladdin from "Arabian Nights - Aladdin and the magic Lamp" (Book)  
  
29) Rusty from "Starlight Express" (Musical)  
  
30) Zelgadis Greywers from "Slayers" (Anime/Manga) 


	33. Weaving Child

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?  
  
A 29th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.  
  
Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....  
  
Weaving Child  
Simone of the Zordiak  
  
It was an accident that he found the costume. He stumbled over it,  
in the truest sense of the word. The wodden staff that was part of the costume had been leaned against the wall, the lowest end of it sticking out into the aisle and Xanders foot had been snagged by it and he had fallen.  
  
Cursing he had looked around and his eyes had fallen onto the staff and the costume that had been responsible for his fall.  
It took one or two moments before he was able to pin a name on that costume, but then he smiled. This costume woke a lot of good memories in him and it was a lot more individual than the soldier costume he had planned. And it was cheap, too.  
  
Willow was running through the streets, trying to find someone,  
anyone to help her, when she saw him. The person was dressed in a simple grey robe with a hood drawn deeply into a face shrouded completely in darkness, except two blue glowing eyes. The person was holding a wooden staff high into the air, singing four notes and the mini-demons around him fell asleep.  
  
Wait a minute... gray robe?? Xander had worn a grey robe as his costume.  
  
"Xander?"  
  
The person turned around and for a moment there was only darkness beneath the hood, as he blinked.  
  
"I'm sorry, but my name is not Xander."  
  
Willow was quite sure now that this was indeed Xander, but it looked like he was also under the spell. But what was his costume?  
  
"Who are you?"  
"My name is Bobbin, Bobbin Threadbare."  
  
fin 


	34. Halloween's Legacy

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 30th drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge:

'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....

Halloween's Legacy

Simone of the Zordiak

The armor was calling to him. He had no other explanation why it simply had to be THIS costume, this and no other. The only thing he did knew was, that it was perfect.

To obtain it, he had to dip into his hidden stash of money, money he had been saving for a long time, since he was planning on going on a road trip after he finally graduated. Well, he would have to mow miss Anderssons lawn a few times more to earn the money back, but that didn't really matter right now, since he had the costume of his dreams.

Red and black was the theme of his costume, with an added dash of white, that was his wig. A cruel looking sword, slung over his back, was the finishing touch and he grinned wickedly as he made his way to Buffy's house.

This was going to be fun.

-o-o-o-

She was running through the streets, searching for help. In her ghostly form she could not protect the other changed children, but there were Buffy and Xander to think about, neither had worn a ghost-costume. Then she saw it, the red and black armor Xander had chosen as his costume.

"Hey, Xander!" She called and he turned around, sword ready to strike.

"Ariel? No, you are not her. She's still bound to the pillars, wretched spirit that she is."

In this moment she realised, that he had been affected by the same strange spell, that had turned her in a ghost and the children into monsters.

"You are not Xander, who are you?"

He smiled coldly, displaying a set of long, deadly fangs.

"Little spirit, you can call me Kain. But now I have more important things to do."

And he dissolved into a flock of bats and flew away.

fin


	35. Destiny interrupted

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 31st drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge:

'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....

Stupid plotbunny wouldn't leave me alone, meanie that it is. I thought I had worn it down until it got into my stack of Duracell... then I surrendered.

This fic contains spoilers for Legacy of Kain: Defiance so if you haven't finished playing that game yet, or are planning on playing it in the future and don't want to be spoiled, don't read.

Destiny interrupted

Simone of the Zordiak

He looked into the mirror and sighed. Normally he would never think about wearing such a ridiculous costume, but he had found nothing better at Ethan's store, after a pre-schooler had taken the last gun in the shop.

Xander sighed. The only thing this costume had going for it was, that it had been cheap and still available ... of course, who would want a costume that consisted out of a blue shirt with some white print that should be bones on it, a huge colourful plastic sword and a brown shawl thing that covered the bottom half of his face?

The worst thing was, that Xander knew which character this should represent, but he had seen costumes made by other, rabid fans of the series that were tons better than his... his was poor, plain and simple.

Well, it was better than nothing. And with a sigh he left to meet the girls at Buffy's home.

-o-o-o-

When Willow realised that something was terribly wrong, she ran to find Buffy and Xander. In her non-corporeal form she couldn't do anything to stop the madness, but her friends might know of a solution.

Then she found Xander. And things went from bad to worse. Where her body had simply collapsed and had gone through the change painlessly, Xander's body was fighting the transformation. Fighting and loosing.

Willow watched him change, helplessly and with a growing horror of knowing what he would become... Xander had played the games on her PC, so she knew the entire story behind the games and she really, really prayed he was the version from Defiance.

The change was over and he stood. Willow swallowed ghostly air. Time to find out.

-o-o-o-

He sat on top of the clock tower of the highschool, thinking. The others had gone home for the night, after the costume episode had been cleared up... for them.

There had be no such closure for him.

He had been about to trick Kain into stabbing him with the Reaver, the future prison of his soul, after he had finally realised that the destiny of the land was hinged on his choice of allowing himself to be caged or not. But then he had ended up here. In a different world, with different rules and magics and no Kain and no Bloodreaver to imprison him.

His body, formed by greater magics and destiny, had not returned to its previous form when the spell had been shattered. His memories had returned to him and part of him was quite upset that his life, his sufferings, were only a set of games for the mortals to amuse themselves. Here, in this world, his destiny would never come to its closure. And he had no idea if he should be upset about that or relieved.

He sighed once more and looked down at the wraithblade still attached to his arm. The spiritreaver was still part of him and somehow he knew, that it would never leave him, it would always remain as it was now, empowered and cleansed through all the souls of the balance guardians before Kain.

The light of the Reaver flickered as he dematerialised the blade.

This was not the time to think about might-have-beens or the paradoxical question why the wraithblade still could exist, if he had never been absorbed into the Reaver.

Once more his existence had been forced through a radical change of happenings and while the other half, the younger half of his strangely shared body had curled into a mental ball, unable to deal with it all at the moment, he had a bit more experience with earth shattering revelations. And deal with it he would. But not right now at this moment.

He stood up, jumped and used the remains of his wings to glide towards the closest graveyard. All this thinking had made him hungry... time to find some lost souls... and feed.

fin


	36. Welcome back, Little Helper

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 32nd drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge:

'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and....

I blame Ed for this one. If he hadn't written "Eat Your Veggies" I might never even thought about this cross. But now the bunny is out of the bag and I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome back, Little Helper

Simone of the Zordiak

He looked through the magnifying glass, turning the tiny screws one last time before putting aside the screwdriver and reaching for the cable.

Almost finished.

Xander looked at his latest project and could feel pride fill his chest. He knew exactly what he was doing, oh yes and it would be wonderful.

-o-o-o-

Yesterday, it had been different. Very different. When Ethan's spell had turned him into his costume, he had no idea what to do. Sure his costume, he was a genius, one of the greatest inventors alive, but most of his inventions were not meant to battling demons and he himself was a rather peaceful chicken, so what could he do against monsters running amok?

Nothing much.

Well, he did have his pocket-forcefield (patent #0492173) with him, but while that created a forcefield of a six feet radius around him, it was not yet designed for moving around, would only work while being stationary.

He had nearly sweated bullets, had hoped dearly that the little monsters would loose their interest in him. And once he had dropped the field to allow two girls to enter the save zone, one of them dressed in a cat costume, the other one half conscious and delusional. Oh, and the other girl, who had managed to walk through the forcefield like it wasn't even there.

That had been Willow and after she had a talk with him and the girl he now knew had been Cordelia, she had left to inform Giles of the happenings of the evening.

Giles had managed to find the source of the chaos and had somehow gotten Ethan to drop the spell. How Xander didn't knew and if he was completely honest with himself, he didn't really want to know.

Instead he had asked some questions about the spell and its after-effects. When he had learned that he soon would loose the memories of the costumes personality, he had set to work to circumvent this from happening.

The little machine had been easy to build and even easier to use and he could feel his brain buzzing with thousands of new ideas, thousands of new inventions waiting to be created by him. Most of them circled around protection from the horrible "night-life", but his current project was purely self-indulgent.

He flipped the switch and smiled as everything started to work just as he had planned it. His costume-self had missed his little Helper terribly the last night, but now his small robot companion was back where it belonged. Back with the new, Sunnydale version of Gyro Gearloose.

fin


	37. Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 33rd drabble in my Halloween Drabble series. Different answers to the challenge:'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and...

Chaos

Simone of the Zordiak

The glow of the candles, outlining the circle, the smell of the burning herbs, the blood covering the idol, all this was Ethan Rayne's domain. He smiled down at the ritual he'd prepared. There were thirty cards, thirty Duel Monsters cards, each carefully placed face up in the circle of chalk and ochre runes. And now he was going to anoint each and everyone of them with a mixture of crushed crystals and dried herbs which had been given Janus special blessing. The idea with the Halloween costumes was quite good, but thanks to the little discovery he had made in a little gaming shop, it would be a masterpiece of mischief and chaos. The monster cards he had found there were quite detailed and artistically pleasing. With the help of some drawings he'd found, some favours he'd called in and a lot of magic, he had created thirty corresponding costumes and now he was bewitching the cards to find the most compatible wearers. Tomorrow he would put up two boxes, one for male and one for female costumes and with a slew of lower, unimportant cards he would put fifteen cards each into the boxes. For five dollars one could draw out a card of the right box. If the teen had the special something inside of her- or himself, the spark the magic was searching for, the right card would find its way into her or his hands.

Those without that special something would draw the lower cards, but even those would help enhance the chaos he was planning to sow.

-o-o-o-

'Volunteered', he had been 'volunteered' by the school dictator to go and do the kiddie duty. And he had no costume, no idea where he could get one and even if he had the address of a costume shop right here, he only had todays and tomorrows lunch money to buy a costume. No costume shop would sell its costume so cheaply, not at Halloween.

Xander was not happy. If he was unable to organise a costume by the early afternoon, he wouldn't be able to do his 'volunteered ' duty and that would mean... he gulped, three days of being forced to listen to Snyder's ramblings during detention. And he had absolutely no desire for selfinflicted torment. So he needed a costume, but where could he get one?

In the end, Willow was his lifesaver, telling him about the newly opened store that was having a sale, Armed with the address and fifteen bucks he had scourged together, he went. And finding out about the lottery, he shrugged, paid five dollars and blindly fished out a card. He had no idea what kind of costume he had just won and truly he did not really care, but when the Ethan guy's eyes widened, when he lead Xander to his newly won costume, he had to admit that he was quite impressed.

The girls would freak.

-o-o-o-

The Oracles were watching the figure standing by the portal. If they hadn't been above the silly human custom of expressing their emotions, they would have sighed at this sight.

Alexander Harris had been a big factor of many of their future plans, but now thousands of years of planning were worthless, because of one lousy chaos sorcerer.

Thousands of fates altered, countless destinies had to be redone and for the first time in a very long period of time the oracles were unable to predict the future. All because of one man. And he still had no idea about his importance.

Because of his chaotic nature, his ability to influence prophecies and the natural balance, the chaos sorcerers Janus-bespelled cards had reacted quite strongly to him. And if you took a boy with a chaotic nature, dressed him in a costume that was almost dripping with chaotic magic and activated a chaos spell, powered by the God of Chaos, on the night when the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest, were also doing this misdeed on top of the Hellmouth, you had to expect side-effects.

Janus had liked the boy, had liked his costume and it had not taken much to anchor it inside the boy. It was permanent now.

Which was also the reason that Alexander was leaving this dimension. If he were to stay any longer he would start to effect the reality of their dimension in a very negative way. His new powers were too chaotic for this realm. And so he had to leave, never to return.

-o-o-o-

She watched him one last time, before he would go and Willow could not, would not suppress her tears. Today she would loose her best and eldest friend and she would never see him again. Almost desperately she tried to memorise his form, it would have to last her till the end.

Halloween had changed Xander, he was now almost 7 feet tall and very lanky. His deep black hair hung straight down, almost reaching his kneecaps. But it was his skin, his clear-blue skin with the strange black tattoos, that drove the message home that Xander was no longer human.

And while she watched, Alexander Harris, a. k. a. the Magician of Black Chaos stepped through the portal, which closed right behind him.

He was never seen in this dimension again.

fin


	38. The Unseen One

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 34th story in my Halloween short story series. Different answers to the challenge:

'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and...

The Unseen One

Simone of the Zordiak

He looked into the mirror one last time. It was not the greatest costume, but it would do. At first he had wanted to go as a soldier, but then, when he had taken the last gun from the bargain bin, he had seen the little boy with the big teary eyes and the wobbly lip, that had looked at the gun so longingly and with a small sigh, he had given it to him. So now he couldn't go a soldier. Instead he had improvised a bit. A few odds and ends from the costume shop and some other items he had scourged together and he had to admit that this costume might even be better than the soldier thing he had had in mind. At least this costume was fitting for Halloween.

o-o-o-

Willow found herself in a bit of a dilemma. First, she was a ghost. She couldn't touch anything or anyone and her body was laying on the porch of old Miss Kessler's house, dead. Secondly, there were lots of small demons and other monsters running around, that had been little children. And thirdly and most important at the moment, there was a tall, pale man dressed in regal black, who was holding her arm and she couldn't get free. Did she already mentioned that he seemed to be very annoyed to find her here? No? Well, he was. Add to that the fact that he was holding her arm, her very incorporeal arm hard enough that she swore she was developing bruises and you could see that, no, Willow did not have a nice evening.

o-o-o-

She shouldn't be here. He glared at the redhead spirit he had caught. Actually, he himself had no idea where he was and how he had come to this place... the last memories he had were of himself... dying? Impossible! Without him the entire system would come crashing down!

And yet, as he looked around, trying to find some hints, some familiarity around him, he only noticed how strange everything was, and how chaotic.

So, maybe he had died, but then he had to find the answer to the question how and why he was seemingly back among the living.

And maybe the shade of the girl could shed some light into this situation.

Using his powers felt a bit strange, like he had gotten terribly rusty and out of practice, but it was the only way to get his answers. There was something strange about the girl-shade and with shock he noticed that the spirit was still tied to her body! How was that possible? Impatiently he dragged the girl with him, following the humming string that connected her to her mortal flesh.

He found her body, covered with a sheet laying on the porch in front of a mortal home. The sheet was enspelled, dividing the soul from the mortal flesh, but the body was still alive. And the spell was not only on the sheet. He could feel the magic penetrating everything around him, it was even on a part of himself. As he took a closer look at the spell (not really his speciality, but unfortunately he couldn't call his aunt to help him) he found out some more details of the spell. It was an enchantment of chaos, partly creating the spirits that possessed the wearers (if the costume was of someone or something unreal) partly calling them from the æther. He himself had been called from the æther, a dead god given the body of the one who had worn his costume. Something not unlike a possession, but with much more consequences for the one who had chosen to impersonate him. Dead or not, he was a God and as such, far beyond all mortal capability. But before he made any decision, he needed more information. With a look of uttermost concentration he reached out for the girls shade and accessed her memory.

The information hit him like a sledgehammer. The hellmouth, demons, magic, death. Shocked he released the spirit. So much damage, he couldn't believe that it had gotten so much out of hand. No doubt that he was needed here.

He grabbed the girls sheet and twisted the magic imbued inside of it. The shade flickered, vanished and the girl sat up, grasping for air. She was back where she belonged, good. Now her displaced shade would not irritate him anymore.

Now he had to find a way to clean up this mess that had accumulated since his untimely death, but he had the feeling that that would take more time than this spell would give him. So he had to find a way to stay beyond the duration of the spell. And yet he had to think about the mortal who's body he was possessing. If his assumption was correct, the boy's soul was only temporary suppressed and would surface as soon as the spell was broken.

The was only one way to find out.

o-o-o-

Giles had a headache, a huge, monstrous beast of a headache. Despite everything he knew and had been taught, last Halloween night had been an indescribable disaster. And it would have been even worse, if not for the strange man, that had appeared and helped them.

The same stranger that was now standing in the library, waiting for him.

The man was tall, taller than him and clothed in flowing, uniform, black, which added to his aura of being untouchable. His skin was so pale that it seemed almost translucent, a stark contrast against the blackness of his hair and the deep brown of his eyes.

And he radiated so much power that Giles was scared. Scared for his life and praying mentally that this man was not an enemy Buffy would have to face. He knew she would loose.

"Yes, she would."

The voice was soft and rather deep, gentle sounding, but Giles had no illusion that it couldn't be hard and commanding as well. That man (?) was used to have his orders obeyed.

And he had just read his mind.

"Yes, I did. It saves time and prevents many misunderstandings. And time is something I don't have very much right now. I just came, because one of your wards freed me, yesterday, at great personal cost. He will not return."

There was only one person that fit the description.

"Xander!"

"Yes."

"Xander is, Xander is dead?"

"No, he isn't. But to allow me to reassemble myself permanently from the æther, I had to merge with the spirit of a living being. I asked and he gave me his permission. Alexander is a part of me now, but I am very old and his influence on my personality small. And yet, he still exist."

"And why should I believe you? Why would he do something like this?"

"Because I am much needed in this days and time. Believe me."

He turned around to leave.

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Who are you? And why do you think you are so needed that a seventeen year old boy would sacrifice his life for you?"

He smiled, but it was a sad smile.

"Who I am and what I am doing is almost the same question. People tend to confuse my name and my duty all the time. I have been given many names over the years, but the most common one is 'Rich One'. The mortals feared to speak my name, since they believed it would draw my attention, a fear that I could never truly understand. But I don't have time for this right now. There is so much damage, that I need to repair. Should you really need my help, call on the Unseen One and if I think your call has merit, I shall help."

And with these words he simply vanished.

Giles starred in disbelief at the spot his visitor had just vanished from. Then he mentally rewound and analysed the conversation and paled to a chalky white as he realised just who Xander had become a part of.

o-o-o-

Three Years Later

She was too strong for them. They had found a way to beat Spike and Dru, had managed to stop the plans of the mayor and had defeated the strange Frankenstein-monster the military had created. But Glorificius was a Hellgod and nothing they could do was good enough to stop her.

Giles knew that they had only one chance left.

He bowed his head and requested HIS help.

And HE came, once more clothed completely in black, but this time he held a long, two-pronged staff in his hands.

The other members of the slayer-team starred at him in undisguised astonishment.

"Watcher," he greeted the one that had asked for his help.

Giles didn't look up.

"Lord Hades," he replied.

Willow fainted.

End


	39. A Matter of Perception

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I? 

A 35th story in my Halloween short story series. Different answers to the challenge: 

'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: It has been a very long time since I last wrote a fic, or a chapter for my longer fiction. But Real Life can be cruel and I needed the time for myself. So now I'm slowly starting to write again and hope I regain what I've lost during my long absence.

A Matter of Perception

Simone of the Zordiak

He did not know when it had started, maybe after Willow had tried to destroy the world in her grief, maybe sooner or sometime later. But he did knew when the first changes had become noticeable. About a week after Sunnydale had become the "Crater-formally-known-as-Sunnydale" his hair had gained white roots. During the next months it slowly had become totally white. 

Xander had listened to may theories why it could have happened, but secretly he had his own idea why his hair had lost colour. 

He had not said anything about it, but he had noticed several other changes, slowly, steadily, working their way through his body. 

Maybe it had started with Willow supercharging his body with the raw earthmagic on Kingmans Bluff, maybe the trigger had been the loss of his eye, he couldn't exactly pinpoint the beginning of his changes... most of them where internally anyway. But he had a good idea why he was changing. All he needed to do to get his answers were a few bloodtests and he was preparing everything so he could do them at the next possible opportunity. 

-o-o-o- 

The news were not good. So many Slayers had been woken all through the world, people had noticed. Greedy people, who were trying to make profit out of their knowledge. 

And Slayers suffered.

Since the culprits were human, no Slayer could be sent against them, not without breaking the "No Human Slaying" law the council was enforcing.

But he was now Slayer. And in the last few months, ever since he had found the answer in his bloodtests, he had started to distance himself from the council. He had a feeling that neither Giles, nor the others would like the answers he had found.

For it was Willow's fault, Willow's and Ethan Rayne's and... Caleb's. The loss of his eye, even if it had been the wrong one for this character, had been the final trigger for his transformation. But without the magic Willow had thrown at him, the transformation would have failed and without Ethans' costume-matrix still floating around in his aura, there wouldn't have been a transformation at all. 

In his eye, it was all for the best. Where no Slayer could go, because of the human factor, he would interfere. Slayers were meant to be feared by demons. He would become the one, humans would fear.

And now he was ready. He had reworked the uniform several times, for what had worked on paper didn't have the same results in real life colours. But it was still very much recognisable.

There were many Slayers, many demon-hunters now and they didn't need a one-eyed carpenter. What the world needed and what he was prepared to give to it, was a new Deathstoke, the Terminator.

End 


	40. Minutes to Midnight

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 36th story in my Halloween short story series. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: I'm working at my writing again, but after so long a time, it's rather hard to remember what I had planned to do with certain story-lines. So it might take a while, but I'm trying.

Minutes to Midnight

Simone of the Zordiak 

Everything started with a broken watch. Larry had banged his arm against the corner of the vending machine and the glass of his watch broke. Then Snyder, the Tyrant of Sunnydale High, had ordered him to do the Brat-Patrol duty and when he had checked the army fatigues he'd thought to wear as a costume, he had been dismayed to learn that his mother had spilled her cheap alcohol on them, making them reek of that stuff and him unable to wear them. Xander thought that there had to be some sort of bad luck deity somewhere, laughing hysterically at him.

So here he was, in this new costume store Willow and Buffy had dragged him to, trying to find a new and relative cheap costume for the night. He was almost ready to give up, when he saw the coat hanging on the bargain rack. It was a short black coat, splattered with fake blood and it looked like it would fit him. When he asked the store-manager about the coat, the man, who introduced himself as Ethan, explained that there was meant to be a sword-handle sticking out of the chest and the rest of the blade coming out of the back of the coat, but the blade had been broken into pieces during the shipping, making this costume incomplete. He'd already written a damage-report for insurance and was just looking to get rid of the coat cheaply, otherwise he would simply throw it out into the trash.

Xander deemed that his series of bad luck was over, bought the coat and went home to get dressed.

-o-o-o-

Joyce blinked as she opened the door. Xander looked... different, there was no other way to say it. He wore black, shoes, pants and coat, everything was black. He was smiling at her and it looked a bit disturbing with all the blood splattered on his coat. When she asked him about his costume, he just smirked and told her to guess.

-o-o-o-

Ethan Rayne had no idea what he was unleashing. To be fair, neither did Xander. He had not dressed up with a certain person in mind, just something kind of dark and Anti-Xander.

If Ethan had still been able to speak, he would have readily agreed that this person in Xanders body was as Anti-Xander as possible. Unfortunately Ethan was quite unable to speak because of the serious telekinetic chokehold he was in. Cold, dark eyes were focussed on him, making him feel like he was being dissected. His worst fears were becoming reality when he heard the cold, cold voice of the man before him. "You are the one responsible for this 'magic', aren't you? I want to know how it works."

And he raised his hand, pointing at him and pain was the last thing Ethan knew before everything vanished in the blackness of death.

-o-o-o-

When Giles stormed into the costume shop, ready to have a violent conversation with his old partner in crime, he more or less stumbled over Ethan's dead body, the head neatly sliced open and the brain gone. He nearly vomited all over the corpse.

-o-o-o-

Having the memories of a brain-stealing serial killer shoved into your head was not something Xander enjoyed to experience. But gaining the powers of said serial killer was a good thing. He had worked out the limitations of the spell and was quite sure that his powers, based on genetic changes in his DNA, were here to stay, simply because they were genetic. Magic and science didn't mix well, that he had learned rather quickly. He was a bit disappointed that he hadn't gained anything from the spellcasters brain, but there were new and interesting avenues of research to follow. Xander smirked as he thought about all the possibilities, closed his eyes and listened to the calming ticking of his newly repaired watch.

End


	41. Of Omens, Good and Bad

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 36th drabble in my Halloween Short Story Collection. Different answers to the challenge: 'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energizer bunny. It rises again and again and again and...

Of Omens, Good and Bad

Simone of the Zordiak

It had looked like a good idea at the time. That was all Xander could say as an explanation. A fun idea for a Halloween costume. And now it was a disaster.

--

Everything had started after the thing with the Master. Prophecy thwarted, Hellmouth closed again and Apocalypse avoided, Buffy had left for L.A., leaving Xander and Giles behind for the summer (Willow had been dragged along with her parents to visit some far-flung relatives of her in Maine). And Xander had been bored. So he had regularly visited Giles to share his boredom with the librarian. Well, at least until Giles got him hooked onto this British fantasy author, then he had started visiting him to read some more of the fun books.

Then Buffy had returned, school had started again and everything had fallen into its boring old pattern, except for the books he was loaning from Giles now and then.

And then Snyder had ordered them to do the kiddie-thing for Halloween and he had found the most fitting costume in the newly opened shop. It was a cheap black leather jacket (the rest of the adventurer set had been damaged so he'd gotten it rather cheap), a pair of black sunglasses from the bargain bin and a set of contact lenses from the theatre section of the shop.

He had added his best pair of black jeans, a black shirt and shoes and had spent more time in front of the bathroom mirror than he normally would, to force his hair into submission.

Yes, he had done rather well, had earned himself some salivating looks form some of the cheerleading squad and it had felt really good to be looked at as something more than just Buffy's devote little follower.

Of course it was then, that Ethan Rayne's spell had hit him like an entire sack of sledgehammers and where Xander went crashing down to the ground, it was someone else that stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothing.

And of course this someone had noticed that something wasn't right, had found the magically suppressed Xander in the back of his mind and had learned the entire truth. It was also quite easy to understand that upon learning that he was a fictional being in this universe Crowley had decided to do anything and everything he could to remain here. He had no desire to dissolve into nothingness with the end of the spell.

It was quite simple for him to follow the trail of black magic to its point of origin and he was not sorry for the heart attack he caused in the shopkeeper by bursting into his quaint little shop in full-fledged demonic form. It was so easy to warp the spell and he had cheerfully drained the lesser God Janus of all of his powers to re-establish his own. The last thing he did was merging himself with the owner of his new body, to make sure that he was fully anchored into this reality.

That was about the moment when the Xander-part of him woke up and panicked.

--

Oh yes, it had looked like a good idea at the time. A fun idea for a Halloween costume. And now it was a disaster. As Giles explained and the Crowley-part of him cheerfully admitted, being a Fallen Angel in the Book world was one thing, but here, in this reality it meant something completely different. He was thousand times stronger than a mere demon, even a pure-breed helldemon was nothing against him. As a true Fallen Angel he was counted among the highest dark powers of this world and Crowley liked that a lot. No more stupid bosses with their stupid ideas of temptation and causing Armageddon. And he was pretty sure that his other half would accept his mischievous temptations of other human beings in exchange for his help in eradicating the lesser creatures that were infesting this plane.

Behind dark sunglasses, yellow snake eyes were glinting with mirth. He would miss the Angel, for a while, but he knew which spell the little chaos mage had used and as soon as he could find a decent focus, he would bring his friend to this interesting place. And… he eyed the librarian carefully, measuring him up against his Angel-friend, he already had the perfect body for him to inhabit.

End


	42. All Heart and Spark

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 37th drabble in my Halloween Short Story Collection. Different answers to the challenge:  
'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny.  
It rises again and again and again and...

All Heart and Spark  
by Simone of the Zordiak

It was a patient being, time had no real meaning for it. Many times it had been 'discovered' by humans. It had been worshipped, had been studied and had been forgotten once more, every single time. But now it was getting desperate, for the newest batch of humans had learned how to make it produce offspring, only to kill them again and again. Being studied meant nothing to the being, sooner or later the humans would leave it and forget all about it. But its children, its poor innocent children were suffering and it wanted to run, flee from those sadistic creatures. Unfortunately it was completely immobile, always had been. It needed help, an opportunity and on the 31st of October in the year 1997 it had been given just that.

o-o-o-o

When he'd come to the shop, he'd found himself outgunned… well Ethan Rayne had been out of toy guns for him to buy. There was also the fact that both Buffy and Willow thought his idea of going as a soldier was a stupid one and had started to discuss alternatives, without listening to his protests.

Irritated he started fishing in the bargain bin, when his hand closed around a interesting object. It looked like a set of headphones… a set of very modified headphones. And suddenly he had an idea. This could work.

"Willow?" He held up the headphones. "What do you think?" He asked, putting on the phones.

Willows eyes lit up. That would work wonderfully. And she just had seen the right design to paint on him in one of Giles' old tomes. Xander was going to look stunning.

o-o-o-o

It did not know why, or when or even how it had come to this existence, but it did know that it was the answer for its dilemma. A self-mobile form, able to remove itself from the grip of the humans that had tormented its offspring. Also it was able to observe the beings around it closer and more in depth than in its old form. But how to keep this form? It didn't even know how it had come to this existence, how should it prevent the reversal?

o-o-o-o

Janus was watching. And, so far, he was not pleased. The masking spell had been part of his defensive spells, once used by his priests to turn worshippers into temporary warriors, should they be under attack. But this worshipper of chaos was using it for fun, to annoy an old friend and worse, he had cast the ritual on top of the hellmouth! No, Janus was not the happiest god tonight. He was about to close the viewing mirror in disgust, when he was interrupted by someone, a call he had never thought he would getting. What could he want from him?

Janus listened and couldn't suppress his smile. What the other had wanted from him was a blessing, a bit of reordering and the result would be beneficial for all. It would be chaotic, yes, but in a good way and he wasn't the God of Change and new Beginnings for nothing.

He cantered his mirror to one specific person and with the hep of the other, bestowed a bon upon him. The youth might see this as a blessing or a curse, but to an entire race, it would be the beginning of something new. And Janus was going to watch it unfold. This, this would be interesting.

o-o-o-o

Ten Years Later

The battle was just starting as he entered the city. He, who had been Xander once and was now going by Al, was angry. Well, not really angry, but seriously annoyed with them. How could they! How dare they! He was fuming and he knew it. It was time to end this fight and finally step out in the open.

When the tallest one grabbed one of the smaller ones to kill him, Al finally acted.

"Enough!" He bellowed and the gigantic beings turned and looked down at the tiny human being that had screamed so loudly.

A tiny human being that was starting to glow, that was starting to grow. There was a whirring sound as soft human skin hardened into bronze-colored metal and shifted into armour plates. Eyes turned into glowing white optics and ears into audials, each with three delicate looking antennae fanning out to the back.

The former human stopped growing as soon as he'd reached a high of fifty feet. Then he glared down on the formerly so big beings.

"I," he spoke, and he sounded like an angry paternal figure, "I demand an explanation."

fin


	43. The Price of Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, it all belongs to other people, but I can still dream, can I?

A 38th drabble in my Halloween Short Story Collection. Different answers to the challenge:  
'what if Xander dressed as something different for Halloween'.

Authors Note: Behold, the dreaded UnDead Bunny. Even worse than the energyzer bunny. It rises again and again and again and...

The Price of Magic  
Simone of the Zordiak

It started with a bet which he'd lost. And for the last six month he'd not been allowed to cut his hair. It was a wavy mess by now.

Or maybe it started with his inability to secure a toy-gun for his soldier costume. Although a soldier with his haircut would not have been very believable. So he'd improvised. An old pair of faux leather pants, the boots of last years cowboy costume, a dagger and some costume make up he'd bought in the costume shop.

There was no fixed moment in time to say when this mess had been set in motion, but there was no doubt that the deal had been sealed the moment the spell had reached Xander... and exploded.

Magic always comes with a price. And for him the price had been his former identity. Gone was Xander Harris, gone his human form, forever. All that remained was a scaled giggling creature clutching a wavy dagger. And inscribed on the dagger his new name: Rumpelstiltskin.


End file.
